Reverse-engineering the world

I woke up and saw a chair.

You know those Amazon recommends engines on websites? Well a concern is that you never get to see new things, it just give you more of the same.

I wonder if the same thing is happening with our immediate environment (hence the chair). The steps are:

1. Physicists experience their environment.
2. They create theories to explain what they see.
3. Engineers use these theories to create our environment.
4. Physicists experience this environment...

In other words, physics is the reverse-engineering of the environment. If we create the environment, we just get our own rules back. Even worse for virtual worlds.

Is this really a problem? If so, what can be done about it?