The Efficacy of the Scientific Method in 2019 A.D. - Dr. Ryan Hooper, Physics

I good starting point: https://www.livescience.com/20896-science-scientific-method.html

· Is the scientific method dead? Recall this is one of the questions you were asked during our Wednesday session. I hope you have thought more on this question. If not, that is ok; in this blog: I will resurrect a few of the points we discussed previously, share some of my thoughts, and include a few references, if you wish to go deeper.

· Within the context of the question “is the scientific method still valid” there is an interesting new avenue exploration: the digital world. I recall during our Wednesday discussion that some of you posited the scientific method may not have the same validity in the digital realm. In a totally controlled environment, such as a virtual reality (VR) “simulation” where the rules can be totally arranged, could a scientific method suss out the underlying rules? I argue as long as there is no miracle, e.g. interventions from time to time by the code overlord, the scientific method will reveal the underlying rules of the road. Now my conclusion hangs on one critical assumption, observability. If one is capable of observing an effect, one should be able to apply the scientific method to determine the rules of the reality. Can you think of a scenario where this conclusion might be false? I think it will be difficult without breaking the observability precept.

For further interesting discussions on this topic: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6a69/81a87632847f4538c49fd2de51e6a0b3d082.pdf

https://www.quora.com/When-does-computer-science-ever-actually-utilize-the-scientific-method-Wouldnt-it-be-more-appropriate-to-call-the-field-computation-or-just-classify-it-as-a-field-of-mathematics

· Recall another of the modern issues I alluded to in our Wednesday session with Dr. Havens, there are some who are arguing we may be at the stage where it is impossible to observe the deepest fundamental physics principles of our Universe. Please see the following article which discusses in some detail the ideas and pertinent issues with string theory and M-theory.

https://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=5880

Again, notice the central failure with these theories is the lack of observable data. Perhaps it is not the scientific method that is running out of steam, but string theory? My feeling is that we should not throw out either pursuit and there is no such thing as an unobservable fundamental principle. A apparent unobservable fundamental principle is just due to our lack of technological maturity and cleverness.

A few parting questions:

If a fundamental truth is not observable does that imply a failure of the scientific method? Does it mean the scientific method cannot and should not be applied? If something is not observable does it even exist?

I hope this post has encouraged you to think more about your experience this summer and what it means to be a scientist.