A famous end-of-science prediction came in 1894, during the speech given by the soon-to-be Nobel laureate Albert A. Michelson on the dedication of the Ryerson Physics Lab, at the University of Chicago:
The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote…. Future discoveries must be looked for in the sixth place of decimals. (Barrow 1988, p. 173)
Even at any future point, such a prospect should likely never be uttered, let alone held in any positive regard. The idea that one can ever know all there is to learn about the universe and it's mysteries is not only a false notion, but it ruins the discovery process. Coming to the end of such a process of learning and presuming that there is nothing left to learn would be such disappointment, knowing there is nothing more to learn, nor further reason to explore.
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