"Theories come and go, and without reproducible, experimental evidence, we have at best a model that fits the data - NOT, as far too many people seem to believe, a necessarily accurate description of objective reality."
1. Even with experimental, reproducible data we still have at best a model which fits the data -- this model may later be found to be a subset of a more complete model or the data we are using may be too narrow.
2. "Objective reality." I don't even know how to approach the second part of your statement. How (and really, I'd be interested in a functional description) does anyone move from scientific theory and experiment to an objective reality? Do we furiously inscribe Newtonian Mechanics or Hilbert Spaces on human children so they get a better grasp on reality? Most of Modern Physics works in a framework that is so utterly counter-intuitive, so opposed to conventional human notions of reality, that it takes a lifetime of intense study by thoughtful people to begin to feebly tug at the frayed edges of a marginal sense of what's going on. And mostly, scholars give up on that task anyway and just "shut up and do calculations".
Slashdot Mirror
"Theories come and go, and without reproducible, experimental evidence, we have at best a model that fits the data - NOT, as far too many people seem to believe, a necessarily accurate description of objective reality." 1. Even with experimental, reproducible data we still have at best a model which fits the data -- this model may later be found to be a subset of a more complete model or the data we are using may be too narrow. 2. "Objective reality." I don't even know how to approach the second part of your statement. How (and really, I'd be interested in a functional description) does anyone move from scientific theory and experiment to an objective reality? Do we furiously inscribe Newtonian Mechanics or Hilbert Spaces on human children so they get a better grasp on reality? Most of Modern Physics works in a framework that is so utterly counter-intuitive, so opposed to conventional human notions of reality, that it takes a lifetime of intense study by thoughtful people to begin to feebly tug at the frayed edges of a marginal sense of what's going on. And mostly, scholars give up on that task anyway and just "shut up and do calculations".