[cornelis]

Once the Grand Unified Theory is perfected (assuming such a thing is possible)

The assumption is preposterous. We're smart, but never so smart to be smarter than ourselves. There's one way out, of course: you just shrink your universe enough so it fits the size of your "grand theory").

I smell the ghost of Descartes

[NJ_gent]

"The assumption is preposterous."

Care to elaborate?

"We're smart, but never so smart to be smarter than ourselves."

This doesn't appear to make sense.

"you just shrink your universe enough so it fits the size of your "grand theory")."

I'm still not understanding what's meant by 'shrink'ing the universe in this context. If you mean simplifying it, then of course that's the goal. (See: Occam's Razor). It doesn't mean ignoring anything; it means you explain as much as you possibly can with the same terms. If I can explain everything as a function of strings and their interactions with each other, and I can do so accurately, than it becomes far easier to gain an understanding of what's happening in any given instance. That is the goal of the GUT.

"I smell the ghost of Descartes"

Descartes attempted to explain the universe in a very fundamental fashion without any understanding of the laws governing it, nor the behavior of most of it, nor any understanding of the fundamental aspects of matter or energy. He tried pushing for the explanation without the evidence, which is a rather large 'no-no' in the world of science.