LLM from pre-1930 derives quantum mechanics and relativity

Machina Mirabilis Michael Hla March 2026 An experiment to see if an LLM trained from scratch on text prior to 1900 can come up with quantum mechanics and relativity. While it fails at most physics related tasks, the model shows glimpses of intuition. When given experimental observations the model can declare that “light is made up of definite quantities of energy” and can even suggest that gravity and acceleration are locally equivalent. (For results, click here) (For a mini essay on what this taught me about intelligence, click here) Annus Mirabilis "The result is one of the greatest achievements of human thought." — J. J. Thomson, on the confirmation of Einstein's theory in 1919 The late 19th century was an interesting time to be a physicist. For the most part, physics, like fields before it, seemed to be nearing completion. Motion was described by Newton, electricity and magnetism were unified by Maxwell's equations, and heat had been explained by Boltzmann. In an 1894 speech at the University of Chicago, the legendary Albert Michelson claimed that "the more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered…" and that all future discoveries would be found in "the sixth place of decimals." And yet, despite this confidence, there seemed to be a quiet revolution bubbling, fueled by a growing stack of experimental results that contradicted the gold standard. The discovery of x-rays and the electron hinted that the atom was not as simple and immutable as scientists had thought. The Michelson Morely experiment showed that the famed luminiferous aether which scientists had long believed was the medium for light had been proven to be nonexistent. Tensions came to a head in 1899, when physicists realized that blackbody radiation curves did not behave as theory predicted. Existing theory struggled to account for the entire spectral range, with leading equations predicting infinite energy density emitted. In what was later called "The UV catastrophe," physicists had to come face to face with disastrous gaps in their understanding, and for the first time since the double slit experiment, we needed to rethink if light was a wave or particle. Plot showing experimental observations of observed spectral radiance (energy density) emitted from black bodies at various temperatures vs predicted spectral radiance from Rayleigh Jean's law, the dominant theory at the time. The black line (classical theory) clearly did not match the experimental results This marked the turn of the century and the beginning of one of the most magical periods in physics. Quantum mechanics, special relativity, general relativity, radiation theory, were all birthed out of criticality and working through controversial experimental results. It was during this time that a 26 year old Albert Einstein published four papers that would change the course of scientific history. The works were so beautiful that physicists deem 1905 to be Einstein's "Annus Mirrabilis", or miraculous year. To this day, it is remembered as one of the most impressive feats of intellect ever achieved, and a true testament to human ingenuity. A Parrot of Apparent Intellect Today, it seems that we have created Einstein level intelligence out of silicon. GPT 5.2 has derived a new result in particle physics, Gemini Deepthink achieved IMO gold, and many open Erdos problems have been solved with a few prompts and long running agents. It feels as though the path to AGI is clear. If…

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