Will science ever run out?

[cameron marical]

If im right, theres only a set amount of things to learn in the universe before you learn it all, and i know theres alot of time until so, will we or any other civilization learn it all so science is no longer science and it is just learning already recorded things?

 

I hope im wrong.

[Mr Skeptic]

Check out Godel's incompleteness theorems.

 

If not everything in math is knowable, perhaps not everything in science will be either.

[Mokele]

Maybe. I know in biology, there's certainly a level of 'diminishing returns'. Once we understand a given system, it's very likely that most other systems are similar due to common descent. As a result, it becomes less and less likely that any new data from previously unexamined organisms will really alter the overall picture.

 

Consider my current field, frog jumping. Once we understand how it works in a few specially selected exemplar species, we've got it mostly nailed down. Adding in 200 more species will give us a bit more resolution and let us examine some more subtle intricacies. But after adding another 1000, even that's pretty complete. Will anything we learn from the remaining 4000 species of frogs really change the picture?

[Vortigon]

True I suppose.

 

But maybe we discover a way to interact directly with another universe or perhaps our universe begins to interact with another universe and all the rules get rewritten overnight.

 

Perhaps in a few million years we will reach a level of knowing 99% of all there is to know. And the Universe itself can be changed to whatever we choose.

 

Maybe we will decide to create our own little universe and see how it develops.

 

I sure we will think of something to keep ourselves amused and interested once we 'almost' know it all.

 

Of course we won't be around that long to get to that stage anyway so it's all just theory

[ydoaPs]

True I suppose.

 

But maybe we discover a way to interact directly with another universe or perhaps our universe begins to interact with another universe and all the rules get rewritten overnight.

 

If our universe interacted with another, then they wouldn't be distinct universes.

[cameron marical]

Not according to the M-theory.

[ydoaPs]

Not according to the M-theory.

 

Oh, how could I forget about M-"theory"? Nope, still not distinct universes if they interact.

[cameron marical]

Not distinct Universes inside the Multiverse?

[GDG]

If im right, theres only a set amount of things to learn in the universe before you learn it all, and i know theres alot of time until so, will we or any other civilization learn it all so science is no longer science and it is just learning already recorded things?

 

I hope im wrong.

 

Sounds sort of like the halting problem to me.

 

It is possible that the amount of available (useful) energy in the universe is limited: at some point at the colder end of time, you're going to start running out of power to do computations. Then the question becomes whether we have enough time to obtain all scientific knowledge before the last brownout...

 

I suspect that, no matter how long you study, it will always be possible to draw one more unexpected correlation between two sets of data

[Moontanman]

Studying the biology of the Earth might be affected by diminishing returns but if we found life on another planet then biology would be wide open again. I think we will always be finding out new subsets of knowledge. If not a new way to think of the idea of "universe" then unknown subsets of the universe would open up whole new fields of knowledge and science. Just because we think something is impossible to know now doesn't mean it will always be unknowable.

[mrburns2012]

If im right, theres only a set amount of things to learn in the universe before you learn it all, and i know theres alot of time until so, will we or any other civilization learn it all so science is no longer science and it is just learning already recorded things?

 

I hope im wrong.

 

Why?

[cameron marical]

Why?

 

Becuase I like science. I know that I will be long dead and recycled by then, but I dont really like the idea of there ever being a form of intelligent life wich lacks anyforms of new science or engineering.

 

I think that would suck. Its like, What next, i found out all your stuff universe, throw me something new.

 

Though, the universe doesnt care what I think.

[J.C.MacSwell]

Becuase I like science. I know that I will be long dead and recycled by then, but I dont really like the idea of there ever being a form of intelligent life wich lacks anyforms of new science or engineering.

 

I think that would suck. Its like, What next, i found out all your stuff universe, throw me something new.

 

Though, the universe doesnt care what I think.

 

Maybe the last thing you/we/something finds out is that it does!

[MM6]

Well, if evolution is true then there will always be something new to study.

[rpf_81]

May be thats true... Cos, we haven't explored much beyond our boundaries

[YT2095]

if we look at chem, imagine the possible number of games playable in Chess, there are only 64 squares and 32 peices, we have well over 100 elements and near infinite "squares".

so you can imagine how many orders of magnitude greater the possible chemical combinations can be!

so really it remains how many of them are of any practical use?

and that`s anyones guess really.

[sobe]

the univerrse is ever expanding, so there could never be an end to learning, the only thing is, we first have to learn how to get to the end of the universe before our bodys decay on the trip there