Every now and then, a discussion comes up about “the end of science” - the idea that we are getting to a point where we will know everything there is to know and be able to explain every phenomenon. I’d like to come at this from a different angle. What if we are heading for the limit not of what there is to know, but of what we are physically capable of understanding?
The days of scientists who were experts and innovators across multiple disciplines are gone; today it takes decades of study to reach the cutting edge of any particular field and only then can new developments be made. I’ve heard it said that there is only a handful of people in the world who truly understand relativity. Perhaps fewer who understand quantum mechanics. Presumably the Theory of Everything that is just out of reach would be understood by fewer still. It would be naive to assume that the complexity of the ultimate nature of the universe coincides so neatly with the limits of the brightest minds our species has to offer. After all our brains are just another part of the system. Isn’t it more likely that the ‘resolution’ of the universe is so fine that the physical laws that govern the behaviour of the brain (and everything else) leave it incapable of understanding those same laws? If so, what implications does this have for the future of science and technology?