What do we mean by one scientific principle “explaining” another? How do we know that there is a common starting point for all such explanations? Will we ever discover that point? How close are we now? What will the final theory be like? What parts of our present physics will survive in a final theory? What will it say about life and consciousness? And, when we have our final theory, what will happen to science and to the human spirit? This chapter, barely touching on these questions, leaves a fuller response to the rest of this book.
