Comment by UniverseHacker

I only got as far as "solved Schrodinger equation for a hydrogen atom" and never got to the next stage you describe with physics.

In a sense, I think your explanation is consistent with mine, but with the deeper context of math being a language itself, and the math itself being a more satisfactory explanation to someone with a greater intuition for what the equations actually mean. I can pump through all of the major equations in physics and explain almost anything I want with them, but it always just feels like rote application of algebra rules to completely arbitrary seeming formulas- nothing like what you describe. Frankly, I think I was more interested in girls than studying when I was a physics student decades ago, and I could probably get a lot more out of it revisiting this stuff now.

However, I do still think there is a real chance that we are missing something big that would fit all of these pieces together with qualitative explanations. Personally, I think Julian Barbour is likely on the right path with his timeless physics, but if so it will need a lot more research and development.