I’m personally convinced that at least for physics we have sufficient data for the next big theoretical breakthrough and we lack only the imagination and the computer power required to numerically validate the maths through simulations.

It feels an awful lot like the decade before Einstein’s landmark papers on quantum mechanics and relativity.

Watch how people like Terrence Tao et al are transforming how mathematics is done: with AI assistance and the Lean theorem prover, at a level of collaboration and consistency never before possible.

Something similar is just around the corner for the other sciences, the ability to mechanise the integration of vast tracts of previously disconnected facts and insights.

Surely something of value will pop out of the result…