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Old 14-07-2003, 05:02 PM
Uncle Al
 
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Default Do Theories Have to be Testable to be Scientific?

Richard Alexander wrote:

Al Klein wrote in message . ..

[snip]

The definition of "scientific" doesn't include "testable".


I think we should at least settle this question; Can an hypothesis,
theory, principle, claim or statement be scientific if it is not
testable?


1) Is M-theory testable? No.
2) Do high temp ceramic supercons have associated theory? No.

Is M-theory science? No, its current status is that of mathematics.
Science requires empirical constraint. Are high temp supercons
science? Sure! Science does not demand theoretical modeling.
Classical biology is the archetype of collected facts with no unifying
basis. DNA analysis eventually appeared. Biology did not change its
status as a science - but it did become predictive given a model.

MBA domination of funding carefully erected the hallucination that
research has a PERT chart and guaranteed results. 98% of that result
is journals bursting with Least Publishable Units and a flood of
second-rate MS and PhDs whose disciplines cannot absorb them.
Discovery cannot be managed, nor is it subject to statistical quality
control. The big discoveries are invariably made by undeserving
personal in wretched circumstances, by "accident." This then
justifies the MBA system. See? It works!

Bullshit. It is a disaster. Funding is funneled to safely
scientifically unproductive senior faculty who have eaten their
brains. They voluminously publish papers and disgorge second rate
degreed personnel. The statistics roll and MBAs get performance
bonuses. Young faculty starves because its ideas are "too risky" to
fund. Anybody can do a parameterized discounted cashflow/return on
investment sheaf of scenarios and prove beyond argument that young
faculty should not be funded at all - certainly not until they
establish themselves as being safely, acceptably productive.

Bottom line: Basic resarch should be abolished and its funding
redirected into higher-yielding investments. With no need for such
research, there is no need for its personnel and its infrastructure to
be maintained or created in the first place. Downsizing of science
with concomittant substantially increased oversight to optimize what
remains should be a national priority.

Uncle Al says, "The goal of Accounting is to value a corporation for
liquidiation; but corporations are not run to be liquidated."

--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" The Net!