General Conclusion

Abstract

At the dawn of the 21st century, we find ourselves in some ways at the same point as we were three millennia ago. The horizons of our instruments have expanded in a tremendous way (see p. 319ff.). The time scales of the phenomena we have explored have dramatically changed from a few millennia to billions of years. The physics of most of the objects known in the Universe is much better understood, and quite consistent with the laws of physics as discovered on Earth. Not only is the Earth no longer the center of the Universe, with Man at its own heart, but the Sun is not even at the center of our Galaxy; and our Galaxy is one among billions, far from the center of our local cluster, which is itself far from the center of our supercluster, not to speak of structures of a higher degree about which we as yet know nothing. Still, the battle rages among three different approaches to the Universe as a whole, much as it did in ancient Greece.