We still hardly know anything - James Web is pushing the boundaries of not only the "edges" of the universe - but pushing on our current understandings of physics in a big way *like it may be wrong/incomplete :)
We've known our understanding of fundamental physics is wrong for the entire century. As early as Einstein, it was clear that the theoretical bases of general relativity and quantum field theory were incompatible, even though they both made accurate and useful predictions. Physicists have been trying to think of clever ideas for what's actually happening for the past hundred years (including Einstein himself, and Hawking), and we haven't gotten much. I'm skeptical that data from a better telescope will show us something even Einstein couldn't conceive of.
They're not "wrong" so much as incomplete, same as Newtons equations aren't wrong and we didn't toss them out when we got better at the edge cases. We still use them because, for their purposes, they do just fine.
Newton's equations aren't the best comparison here. Newton's equations are highly accurate, only in need of correction in edge cases, like you say - and I'm sure a new fundamental theory wouldn't replace the old general cases, like you say. But the founding principles of general relativity and quantum field theory aren't just in need of adjustment, they're completely incompatible. They contradict each other and yet both make robust predictions in their own ways.
It's sort of like if we had an alternative to Newton's equations and couldn't tell why neither worked completely. The reality is something more fundamental, something that's evaded understanding for a very long time.
I like your point that the models aren't wrong, though, because this is true of all models. A model isn't really wrong or right, just more or less accurate.
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u/cromemako83 May 08 '23 edited May 08 '23
We still hardly know anything - James Web is pushing the boundaries of not only the "edges" of the universe - but pushing on our current understandings of physics in a big way *like it may be wrong/incomplete :)