"The ultimate triumph of science"

[Clarke]

I saw this video a few days ago, and one line caught my attention. Near the end, Stephen Hawking says, "We need a theory of everything. Perhaps, the ultimate triumph of science." (Incidentally, watch the video, it's very nice.)

As a summary, a so-called Theory of Everything is the holy grail of particle physics: it would be a single mathematical model describing all known interactions in the universe at all scales, in all possible circumstances. It would be a single, unifying description of, in principle, the entire universe.

Physicists have been after this for about 20 years now, and I have a question for you: what if it was found? What if the physicists came back and said, "this is reality, at its deepest level?" Physics is now done; completed; finished. All other science is mere abstractions on top of the Ultimate Theory of particle physics. The goal science set out to solve (describing the universe) has been completed: the universe has been exactly described. If you want to use the steorotypical example, we know exactly what God said that was summarised in Genesis as "Let there be light."

What does this mean, emotionally or spiritually? How does it affect us, if a group of us can say precisely how reality behaves? Once we know precisly how the world works, what is there for philosophy to do?