This is indeed progress but as I understand the situation, it is progress in the shape of taking another step on the ladder but only to realize it looks like it was the final step, after having searched for billions of dollars during decades.
Maybe, scary thought, the theory of general relativity and the standard model is pretty much entirely self-contained and cannot per their design extend to encompass the quantum world?
Other theories maybe can, but then we need to look at even what we have from a completely different angle?
Like how we have colors. By watching a rainbow we can see them all. There can be nothing more. Until you realize they are mere wavelengths in the optical spectrum and there is so much more. But that is a quantum leap in viewing things. However, maybe this is what is needed?
Maybe this is just philosophical garbage though. :D
Sure, GR may well be self-contained and cannot encompass the quantum world in the same sense as the Newtonian mechanics is and can't. But the Nature does not have such boundaries, especially at such a fundamental level, and it is "self-contained" as a whole. So, while it may be impractical to try an create a unified theory of some aspects of reality, say, quantum mechanics and linguistics or economy, theories concerning fundamental aspects of Nature naturally are, and have been, subject to unification.
Note that colors we can perceive aren’t all in the rainbow.
There’s no pink in the rainbow. That’s because pink is what is left when you take white light and remove the green part. It’s minus green. There’s no wavelength that corresponds to pink.
So what? A mix of wavelengths is just as real as a single wavelength. More to the point, colors are merely perceptions (artifacts of consciousness) which can be caused by a variety of factors.
Maybe, scary thought, the theory of general relativity and the standard model is pretty much entirely self-contained and cannot per their design extend to encompass the quantum world?
Other theories maybe can, but then we need to look at even what we have from a completely different angle?
Like how we have colors. By watching a rainbow we can see them all. There can be nothing more. Until you realize they are mere wavelengths in the optical spectrum and there is so much more. But that is a quantum leap in viewing things. However, maybe this is what is needed?
Maybe this is just philosophical garbage though. :D