a few interesting points here, but the author misunderstands one critical idea: science is always wrong by design. this is why the author claims that popper is irrelevant.
he doesn't understand what popper understood: each scientific experiment is an asymptotic step towards a 100% accurate understanding of reality. that's it.
it doesn't matter if the experiment "failed" or succeeded, so long as it was methodologically sound. you don't even need to understand that you're making an asymptotic step at all! every element of a hypothesis built this way is falsifiable by another such asymptotic step. note: falsifiable does not mean that the entire hypothesis is discarded -- just one element.
is this process inherently self correcting? not on the timescale we'd like, but ultimately, yes.
the current institutional problems with science are severe, but largely inconsequential in the very long run of human knowledge. institutional science as it is currently practiced is not the only "science" nor is it so flawed as to be unworkable. simply put, problems of scientists and people performing science can slow down the march of science, but it can't stop the production of new knowledge.
the same goes for editorialization of findings, misuse of descriptive language by scientists, misuse of quantitative models, etc. these are problems which MIGHT cause a smaller number of asymptotic steps, but only on the scale of a hundred years at the worst. we're in the game for thousands or maybe millions of years. we have the time to make these mistakes and get over them. and often, when we realize our mistakes, we make a ton of progress immediately after.
so, then, what is science? an intentional use of objective methodology to improve knowledge of reality.
he doesn't understand what popper understood: each scientific experiment is an asymptotic step towards a 100% accurate understanding of reality. that's it.
it doesn't matter if the experiment "failed" or succeeded, so long as it was methodologically sound. you don't even need to understand that you're making an asymptotic step at all! every element of a hypothesis built this way is falsifiable by another such asymptotic step. note: falsifiable does not mean that the entire hypothesis is discarded -- just one element.
is this process inherently self correcting? not on the timescale we'd like, but ultimately, yes.
the current institutional problems with science are severe, but largely inconsequential in the very long run of human knowledge. institutional science as it is currently practiced is not the only "science" nor is it so flawed as to be unworkable. simply put, problems of scientists and people performing science can slow down the march of science, but it can't stop the production of new knowledge.
the same goes for editorialization of findings, misuse of descriptive language by scientists, misuse of quantitative models, etc. these are problems which MIGHT cause a smaller number of asymptotic steps, but only on the scale of a hundred years at the worst. we're in the game for thousands or maybe millions of years. we have the time to make these mistakes and get over them. and often, when we realize our mistakes, we make a ton of progress immediately after.
so, then, what is science? an intentional use of objective methodology to improve knowledge of reality.