Very good read, and resonated with me because I had read the same new agey books at the time, went to study physics with the same "I'll find the grail" philosophy and had felt the painful blow of disillusionment, together with other blows that convinced me to leave the path much earlier than the author of the article.
Many years later, I feel that "the grail" is still the driving force behind most of my thoughts, but frankly, I doubt it is reachable by thought. Suppose someone will solve quantum gravity. I'd be very excited and curious - it would be wonderful and fascinating, but I believe any claim that "Physics is solved" that might be stated after that would be as misguided as lord Kelvin's claim at the time. Any solution would eventually just set the stage for the next grail chase, with more food for the mind to chew on from an infinite supply and no answer will really make a dent in the armour surrounding the question of what is the essence of this food supply or it's relation to the thoughts that contemplate it. I can't prove any of this of course...
<...but I believe any claim that "Physics is solved" that might be stated after that would be as misguided as lord Kelvin's claim at the time.>
Perhaps and maybe even for a long time but you can't have an infinite progressions of "fundamental" theories at some point the questions will be answered such that "this" is as far as we can go. The problems and questions in physics are philosophical (more specifically epistemology) and revolve around what is a valid measurement when you get down to the limit of measurement?, what is an observer and what distinguishes the observer from the observed? Unfortunately, the vast majority of physicists disdainfully reject philosophy as bunk and continue to mathturbate even as their own theories become indistinguishable from bunk.
Many years later, I feel that "the grail" is still the driving force behind most of my thoughts, but frankly, I doubt it is reachable by thought. Suppose someone will solve quantum gravity. I'd be very excited and curious - it would be wonderful and fascinating, but I believe any claim that "Physics is solved" that might be stated after that would be as misguided as lord Kelvin's claim at the time. Any solution would eventually just set the stage for the next grail chase, with more food for the mind to chew on from an infinite supply and no answer will really make a dent in the armour surrounding the question of what is the essence of this food supply or it's relation to the thoughts that contemplate it. I can't prove any of this of course...