Dark-Fire,
To answer you question no I don't have a degree in physics, but I spend a lot of time reading whats out there on the Internet and then trying to peace it all together. I just happen to love finding relationships in complex phenomena and have come to the conclusion the world in which we live isn't nearly as complex as people seem to think it is.
The way I look at it is this software such Terragen try to model parts of the natural physical world and its many phenomena, conversely then nature has certain immutable laws which we call the laws of physics.
Put it another way cut a slice from an apple, you have a partially whole apple not the complete whole; representing nature on a computer then at the moment with all the fudging, workarounds and so forth is like the apple with the missing slice it isn't the complete picture and therefore not as one would expect.
As computers get more powerful new methods replace the old, if your going to represent nature on a computer then nature has rules that need to be followed just like if people go up against nature and as you know nature wins every time, you cannot escape the fundamental laws of physics and how they interact with one another.
As it stands right now there are two many uncertainties, to many unknowns and areas of grey about various aspects of how nature works, what we know to be true today may not be so in ten or even fifty years form now, but that is what discovery (Not the Channel) and a sense of wonder (I never lost mine) will do for you.
Regards to you.
Cyber-Angel