Physics is grand. It's the grandest of the many achievements of
our species -- greater than music, greater than art, greater
than our omni-present consumer marketplace with its daily
provision of ever-smarter phones and ever-stupider
advertisements. When physics shows up on our doorstep, as it
does when we purchase a mysterious new piece of electronics
containing lasers, memory chips and magical glass, we get a stir
of excitement. But that stir is little more than the buzz
created by magicians, circus performers or Olympic gymnasts
doing mysterious things that we can't comprehend. Underneath the
glitter and magic of high tech toys made possible by physics are
deep ideas about the fundamental nature of the world. Without an
understanding of these deep ideas there would be no magical
products. Reflect on the fact that almost all the physics of the
20th century is validated every time your smart phone powers up.
If just one of those physics laws disappeared, or changed a
little bit, much of our civilization woul