But is it science?
Theoretical physicists who say the multiverse exists set a dangerous precedent: science based on zero empirical evidence
There is no agreed criterion to distinguish science from pseudoscience, or just plain ordinary bullshit,
opening the door to all manner of metaphysics masquerading as science. This is ‘post-empirical’ science,
where truth no longer matters, and it is potentially very dangerous.
To understand why post-empirical science is even possible,
we need first to dispel some of science’s greatest myths.
Just try to make any sense of the raw data produced by CERN’s Large Hadron Collider
without recourse to theories of particle physics, and see how far you get.
In February 2019, the pioneers of GPS were awarded the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.
The judges remarked that ‘the public may not know what [GPS] stands for, but they know what it is’.
This suggests a rather handy metaphor for science.
We might scratch our heads about how it works, but we know that, when it’s done properly, it does.
string theory is not only a very promising scientific theory, but pretty much ‘the only game in town,’
others scornfully respond that it isn’t even science, since it doesn’t make contact with the empirical evidence:
Let me give you a taste of the exchange, to set the mood: ‘The fear is that it would become
difficult to separate such ‘science’ from New Age thinking, or science fiction,’ said George Ellis,
chastising the pro-string party; to which Sabine Hossenfelder added: ‘Post-empirical science is an oxymoron.’
The point is that in a lot of cases we don’t discover pre-existing boundaries,
as if games and scientific disciplines were Platonic ideal forms that existed in a timeless metaphysical dimension.
Theoretical physicists who say the multiverse exists set a dangerous precedent: science based on zero empirical evidence
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