The classic answer is that it gives us all this instrumental success ... the second function of science, which I think is the one that's not so much talked about, which is what I call the cosmological dimension of science, which is to basically describe our cosmic home to us. And, as the complexity theorist Stuart Kauffman said, one of the functions of science is to help us to feel at home in the Universe. I believe that that is really important and powerful function of the contemporary science.
The problem becomes if our descriptions of the Universe have become so complicated because science has actually reached a point with such enormous success, but if the complexity of the theory is so complicated that most human beings cannot comprehend it, then it does raise the question who gets to feel at home in the cosmos described by our science?
Margaret Wertheim (Margaret Throsby's Midday Interview on 21 March 2013)