Adam Frank's About Time is an excellent and non-technical intro to the subject which weaves together the cultural and economic changes in history which led us to the current standard model of physics.
Suffice it to say that, if we live in an 11-dimensional universe (as string theory requires), "all bets are off" as far as observing very much about the real nature of "reality."
If we don't live in a multidimensional universe, then physics has "a lot of 'splaining to do," as Ricky Ricardo put it, on the reasons behind the magic number constants (Are there 22 of them? This is not my field.) which make the standard model work out. I emphasize that this refers to the standard model of quantum physics and not some wild speculation.
TL;DR: We don't know where we live or how we got here and our current conceptions are almost guaranteed to change again.
Suffice it to say that, if we live in an 11-dimensional universe (as string theory requires), "all bets are off" as far as observing very much about the real nature of "reality."
If we don't live in a multidimensional universe, then physics has "a lot of 'splaining to do," as Ricky Ricardo put it, on the reasons behind the magic number constants (Are there 22 of them? This is not my field.) which make the standard model work out. I emphasize that this refers to the standard model of quantum physics and not some wild speculation.
TL;DR: We don't know where we live or how we got here and our current conceptions are almost guaranteed to change again.