In the late middle ages, Aristotelian physics offered a unitary scheme for understanding the physical world. Copernicus started a major scientific revolution, and for 150 years the theory of the world was badly fragmented, until Newton was able to find a new synthesis.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Einstein, Heisenberg, Dirac and others started a comparable revolution. Today, our theory of the physical world is again badly fragmented, and physicists are struggling to find novel and deeper conceptual grounds.
Between now and 2056, I hope and expect that the 20th-century revolution will find its synthesis, and a coherent way of thinking about the world will emerge, compatible with new discoveries such as quantum theory and relativity. Perhaps its importance will match that of the 17th-century scientific revolution.
Carlo Rovelli is at the University of the Mediterranean in Marseille
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