ABSTRACT
7.1 Revisiting the questions of Chapter 1
It is time to revisit the questions we asked in Chapter 1. Throughout this book we have attempted to confront each question with the best available observational data. Later we will consider a series of promising new cosmological observations that can be made with improving instrumentation and telescope aperture. These observations have the potential to offer even more constraining power on competing cosmological models. For now we assess our cosmological knowledge, as of mid 1997, which is anchored firmly in observations and a realistic assessment of possible systematic errors in them. In evaluating this assessment, we should keep in mind the two themes articulated in Chapter 1: (1) at any given time in history, everyone believes their cosmological models are correct; (2) history shows that cosmological models are subject to great change once better observations become available. In fact, falsification is the scientific history of cosmological model making and our current cosmology will certainly be subject to heavy revision in the years to come. The following summary positions are consistent with the data for each of the key questions we posed earlier on.
