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Why the Cloud Cannot Obscure the Scientific Method
aproposofwhat noted Ars Technica's rebuttal to
yesterday's story about "The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete." The response is titled "Why the cloud cannot obscure the Scientific Method," and is a good follow up to the discussion.
And can back up this rebuttal with a practical example. I am a physicist, I know sod all about blood samples, or proteins, or cancer. I get a pile of mass spec data (about a billion data points or so on some days) and through binning, background subtraction, and a string of other statistical witchcraft I produce a set of peaks labeled according to intensity and significance.
This does not make me a cancer researcher. This data has to go back to the cancer guys and they have to pick out the Biomarkers and thus develop new diagnostic tests, based on principles that I don't understand. I am master of the information but entirely blind as far as the science is concerned. Same goes for google.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
I have always viewed this debate in the context of scientist vs. engineer. That is one who views data as "good and true" vs. "good enough". That's not a slam on engineers (I am one), but a reflection of the balance between the two. A scientist that never applies theory sits in an empty room. An engineer who build things with out science, sits in a cluttered room surrounded by useless objects.
I do find interesting though that the advent of "google data" may indicate a flip in order of the two disciplines. Historically (IMHO) science has led engineering. A theoretical breakthrough, provable by the scientific method, may take years to give birth to a practical application. Now, with enormous piles of data and the knowledge that "good enough" is often good enough, we may be creating useful objects that will take science many years to explain and model.
The biggest issue and omission in both of these pieces is that this "cloud" of data does not represent "truth" (as the scientist may seek), but rather a summation or averaging of the "perception of truth" as seen by the individual authors. The cloud, therefore, is only as useful as human's ability to divine truth without the scientific method.
My two cents. :)