![]() ![]() Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow, The Grand Design, p. It is natural to ask: Will this sequence eventually reach an end point, an ultimate theory of the universe, that will include all forces and predict every observation we can make, or will we continue forever finding better theories, but never one that cannot be improved upon? We do not yet have a definitive answer to this question. ![]() In the history of science we have discovered a sequence of better and better theories or models, from Plato to the classical theory of Newton to modern quantum theories. Will an ultimate theory of everything be found? Hawking and Mlodinow suggest it is unclear: ![]() Model-dependent realism asserts that all we can know about "reality" consists of networks of world pictures that explain observations by connecting them by rules to concepts defined in models. The term "model-dependent realism" was coined by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow in their 2010 book, The Grand Design. The only meaningful thing is the usefulness of the model. It claims that it is meaningless to talk about the "true reality" of a model as we can never be absolutely certain of anything. It claims reality should be interpreted based upon these models, and where several models overlap in describing a particular subject, multiple, equally valid, realities exist. Model-dependent realism is a view of scientific inquiry that focuses on the role of scientific models of phenomena. ![]()
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