Physical Laws are an Oversight

It was on the way home on my scooter that a strange thought struck me: You see, the field of Optics had been pioneered by heavyweights such as Newton in his masterpiece 'Opticks', Huygens and Fresnel. These had serious implications in our understanding of the visible world around us and were the building blocks of further, more complex principles like wave-particle duality, quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics.

Now, this field could have only been sparked by the flint of being able to see, that is pretty evident. Imagine a world where humans were born blind --- would it then be possible for us to conceive of the physics behind optical phenomena?

At this juncture, some might argue that the mathematical constructs would exist, somehow or other during its study, so this wouldn't be too far of a stretch to suggest otherwise. However, while the branch of mathematics might describe stuff such as complex amplitudes that are necessary for such laws, we must understand that such equations make sense only in the light and relevance of a physical phenomena.

Even so, questions pertaining to sources of energy and heat or with regard to an external source (i.e. the Sun) might drive humans to conclude that there must be waves emanating and therefore come up with the necessary laws to describe them.

[Ok, this is weird]

I had originally begun this article with the answer of "no" in mind. However, as I continue to muse over the possibility and achievements that humans have managed to attain without the ability to observe certain phenomena (electrons, wavelengths outside of the visible spectrum, etc.), I've changed my mind.

I think it's highly possible that we'll ultimately, albeit with greater setbacks, still get to the point that we are at now.

My point is this: Humans study things that we can observe. The world is beautiful because of colour...and because we're able to see its manifestation in the objects around us. Imagine all the other things we're missing out on because we weren't imbued with the physical sense to observe. The universe is truly bigger than what we can conceive.