We constantly say that Einstein’s General and Special theories of relativity have passed many different tests, insenuating their accuracy.
Before Einsten, we tested Isaac Newton’s theories, which also passed with accuracy until Einstein came along.
What’s to say another Einstein/Newton comes along 200-300 years from now to dispute Einstein’s theories?
Is that even possible or are his theories grounded in certainty at this point?
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You are misunderstanding something. Newton was ***right***. He just didn’t cover everything perfectly.
Einstein didn’t prove Newton wrong. He proved that there was more to it than what Newton found. He didn’t prove that light wasn’t a wave. He proved that it was a particle *and* a wave. His theories of relativity depended upon Newton’s concept of inertia. They didn’t prove it wrong, they explained it further. Nothing about not being able to accelerate to the speed of light changes the fact that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. It only helps us to understand better what that “equal” means.,
About the closest we come to proving Newton wrong and Einstein right is Mercury and “the procession of the perihelion”. However, in this you are incorrect;’ Isaac Newton did ***not*** pass with accuracy. Mercury did not orbit the way Newton said that it should. Einstein shows how a more accurate understanding explained an existing discrepancy between Mercury’s orbit and Newton’s predictions.
In the case of physical laws, they are not “disproven”, they are found to be inaccurate or incomplete and in need of refinement. If you prove that Galileo was wrong about gravity people don’t float off into space. You just find that in some respect somewhere he wasn’t quite right. Einstein refined what Newton said and made it more accurate, but mostly Newton remained right. Einstein added on rather than proving wrong.
If 100 years from now Ferguson creates a faster-than-light drive, it will not prove Einstein wrong in general. Objects approaching the speed of light via acceleration will still get heavier, just as Newton being inaccurate about gravity in one way didn’t change the fact that Mercury orbited the Sun. What will change is that we will find a way in which relativity does not prevent faster-than-light travel, not that relativity was outright wrong. Within the limits of our current measurements, it is right and will continue to be so.
New discoveries or theories may show where it does not apply, or even where it has no meaning, but they won’t change the fact that approaching the speed of light makes you heavier and no amount of energy can accelerate you past the speed of light. If a faster-than-light drive exists it will either sidestep Einstein or it will show that Einstein was only ***mostly*** right.
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