Relativity, which was the original subject, was not just a refinement of what we knew, it discovering that what we knew was just a special case of a much weirder universe.  Actually, so was round-earth, for that matter, relative to the mental models available at the time.  In both cases a rather abstract notion with no immediate practical impact.  It&#x27;s NOT a case of just coloring in the details, like the detailed measurements of the precise shape of the earth, it&#x27;s a revolution in understanding.  Pre-relativity, the general consensus was that we knew almost everything, save a few niggling details, like the black body problem.  But pulling on that thread revealed a whole world underneath.  Newtonian physics was, and still is, extremely useful.  And there is certainly a hierarchy of wrongness, but the point is the arrogance of believing yourself to live closer to the end than the beginning.