Is this a good time to be a theoretical physicist?
I ask this because it is beginning to look like the Standard Model of physics, Einstein's relativity and quantum mechanics, are being substantiated at the experimental level.
I'm certainly not in the field and can speak with very little knowledge. It appears to me that with the confirmation of the Higgs boson at the CERN collider and the discovery that the distribution of galactic matter substantiates the existence of gravitons, that the Standard Model has received substantial confirmation.
A great deal of work has been done on alternative models including string theory and alternative universes. Alternative universes has even become a field of study in the realm of academic philosophy.
The need for these alternative models of the universe would seem to be less important with all of the confirmation of the Standard Model.
Does the entire theory of science rest on the assumption that there will always be new fields of study? I think the answer is 'Yes'. There will of course will be substantial worlds to investigate outside of the Standard Model.
My question is whether the substantiation of the Standard Model is sufficient to put an entire chain of research in the closet and move on to other more promising theoretical worlds?