Understand that science is a name given to both a method, and to a mostly self-consistent body of models that can be used to make useful predictions. Science doesn't get things wrong. Science gets iterated upon.
this post was submitted on 28 May 2025
684 points (96.6% liked)
Science Memes
15972 readers
1278 users here now
Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Research Committee
Other Mander Communities
Science and Research
Biology and Life Sciences
- !abiogenesis@mander.xyz
- !animal-behavior@mander.xyz
- !anthropology@mander.xyz
- !arachnology@mander.xyz
- !balconygardening@slrpnk.net
- !biodiversity@mander.xyz
- !biology@mander.xyz
- !biophysics@mander.xyz
- !botany@mander.xyz
- !ecology@mander.xyz
- !entomology@mander.xyz
- !fermentation@mander.xyz
- !herpetology@mander.xyz
- !houseplants@mander.xyz
- !medicine@mander.xyz
- !microscopy@mander.xyz
- !mycology@mander.xyz
- !nudibranchs@mander.xyz
- !nutrition@mander.xyz
- !palaeoecology@mander.xyz
- !palaeontology@mander.xyz
- !photosynthesis@mander.xyz
- !plantid@mander.xyz
- !plants@mander.xyz
- !reptiles and amphibians@mander.xyz
Physical Sciences
- !astronomy@mander.xyz
- !chemistry@mander.xyz
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !geography@mander.xyz
- !geospatial@mander.xyz
- !nuclear@mander.xyz
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !quantum-computing@mander.xyz
- !spectroscopy@mander.xyz
Humanities and Social Sciences
Practical and Applied Sciences
- !exercise-and sports-science@mander.xyz
- !gardening@mander.xyz
- !self sufficiency@mander.xyz
- !soilscience@slrpnk.net
- !terrariums@mander.xyz
- !timelapse@mander.xyz
Memes
Miscellaneous
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Good science doesn't get things wrong. Bad science gets things wrong all the time. No scientist is immune to implicit bias and implicit bias is frequently the cause of bad science.
eGFR estimation errors in African Americans is a prime example of that.
And by Godel's Incompleteness theorems, that body of models can never be 100% correct.
This is false. Godels incompleteness theorems only prove that there will be things that are unprovable in that body of models.
Good news, Newtons flaming laser sword says that if something can’t be proven, it isn’t worth thinking about.
Imagine I said, “we live in a simulation but it is so perfect that we’ll never be able to find evidence of it”
Can you prove my statement? No.
In fact no matter what proof you try to use I can just claim it is part of the simulation. All models will be incomplete because I can always say you can’t prove me wrong. But, because there is never any evidence, the fact we live in a simulation must never be relevant/required for the explanation of things going on inside our models.
Are models are “incomplete” already, but it doesn’t matter and it won’t because anything that has an effect can be measured/catalogued and addded to a model, and anything that doesn’t have an effect doesn’t matter.
TL;DR: Science as a body of models will never be able to prove/disprove every possible statement/hypothesis, but that does not mean it can’t prove/disprove every hypothesis/statement that actually matters.
Godel is a mathematical result, not a scientific result. It only applies to science to the extent that it depends on mathematics.
we live in a simulation but it is so perfect that we’ll never be able to find evidence of it
This is not a mathematical statement and thus it's irrelevant to Godel's theorem.
Newtons flaming laser sword says that if something can’t be proven, it isn’t worth thinking about.
This is pseudo-science without mathematical or scientific basis.
Science as a body of models will never be able to prove/disprove every possible statement/hypothesis,
Yes, because science doesn't "prove" anything. There is no "proof" in science. Just experiments, evidence, etc.
that does not mean it can’t prove/disprove every hypothesis/statement that actually matters.
Yes, it does mean that science can't prove stuff because that's not how science works.
It's completely misleading to conflate mathematical proof with scientific evidence. Math/science education is truly terrible, especially in terms of epistemology. The system doesn't actually want people to question or think.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Having things be unprovable in a body of models would make it not a 100% correct body of models. You know it'd be... incomplete. That's what it means, we've mathematically proven you cannot prove everything that is true.
NFLS is about whether a particular claim is testable, and can therefore productively be debated (as in I'm not debating whether there is a teapot orbiting earth). The way you've attempted to combine these two ideas is odd.
load more comments
(1 replies)
We haven't yet been able to ressurect anything by recreating vital signs in a corpse so there's something we can't measure or detect of life so far.
I'd argue that we can't do a resurrection because that's really complex, not because we don't know how.
I'll also point out that there are people alive today who were declared medically dead that live normal lives because we made their heart beat again.
The brain is a hard drive with only one working flash of the system
Yes, and those are rare cases and so far apart from "corrolates with time" it is hard to impossible to know for sure when someone is outside that window.
I was also under the illusion that we'd done a lot of experiments trying to reelecrifiy frogs' brains we have failed to get anywhere beyond muscle spasms off of the data and measurements we've been able to make.
For me the more important implication of Godel is that mathematics itself is countable and thus measure zero. No matter how much we do, the infinite majority of the unknown will still be left to explore... And that's just the math, not even talking about the dependent science (also measure zero). The unprovable stuff is just a tiny subset of this.
You know a lot more Maths than I do, and I agree with you (even if my thoughts in it all are more about having a fancy name to get people who claim both Positivism and "Maybe it's all a simulation man" to recognise the hypocrisy of that).
My whole life-data-mismatch thing is from similar discussions with positivists, as I think life and consciousness is a pretty easy area to show that it doesn't hold all the answers.
Back to the main point:
The idea that Maths is countable is pretty wild, and I'm gonna need to mull on it. Thanks for sharing.
I've taken to distinguishing between science(v), the method and science(n), the body of models and data. Science(v) is imperfect, but basically as close as we can get to objective truth. Science(n) can often stress conclusions further than their rigor justifies, but eventually regresses to the mean for the most part.
You can't really question science(v) beyond its intrinsic epistemology, and no other method can really do any better. You can often question science(n), heck I can't count the number of times "consensus" flip-flopped on red wine, coffee, fat, and so on. But eventually science(v) does bring science(n) to a stable empirical baseline.
There's also the "science" that is your policy choices (personal or public policy) based on the science(n) and your values, risk tolerance, and lifestyle. Since the latter factors can change a lot over time, these policies can also fluctuate wildly and give the impression that "science" fluctuates wildly.
It's ironic to refute post-modern ideals with semantics.
I hate their stage names. Baby, Sporty, Posh? Why tf didn't they use actual spice names? Ginger was already there. Why others weren't called Cinnamon, Pepper, Clove, and Nutmeg? Fucking Brits. 😤😡🤬
Imagine the Brits actually using spice
Yeah! It's not like tikka masala exists or is the most popular British dish or anything.
Tikka masala being the best British dish will never be not funny
Isn't that.... Indian?
Nope! Invented by Bangladeshi/brits in England. Its plenty inspired by butter chicken, but made completely differently with British ingredients.
load more comments
(1 replies)
it's that class of "immigrant took their native cuisine and retooled it to make drunk locals do that cartoon thing where they smell a visible trail of scent and start floating towards the source, whereupon they hand over their entire wallet in return for delicious food"
🫡
load more comments
(1 replies)
Scary was the worst stage name. It really hasn't aged well
Americans eat old spice all the time, but Brits try some baby spice and suddenly they've got no taste.
Science isn't a belief, it's a method.
Eh, IMO it's more like four methods stacked on top of each other wearing a trench coat.
Still the best trench coat we currently have.
All the other methods are wearing Borat strings and slinging poop at each other.
load more comments
(7 replies)
The producer of this track.
This is true. We might think that science and tech advanced slowly and steadily, and while that is technically true in some sense, as a general rule science advanced in exponential levels. Like the 2nd industrial revolution of the late 19th century saw such a massive explosion in tech that it created a change that could only be compared to the agricultural revolution.
And let's not get started on the 20th century. Going from first heavier than air flight to landing on the moon in 66 years? Yeah that cannot be overstated.
Still fucks with me that someone could have written an essay about the impossibility of heavier than air flight at the age of 20, and lived to see the moon landing. That's like growing up believing the earth to be the center of the universe, and then living to see the discovery of other galaxies. It would be like growing up a hunter-gatherer and buying a pizza in a grocery store
You know, before Trump and the rise of neo-nazism into the mainstream I used to be huge into interwar media (early talkies, silent films, radio, etc) and one thing I found was a sci-fi radio show (I am not sure if it was Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon or something else) that seemed to treat the very concept of making into space in the 20th century as an impossible feat.
But a little over 20 years after that broadcast Sputnik happened. So many listeners and writers of the time absolutely were eating their own words afterward.
To be fair, Newton was suggesting the feasibility of using chemical propellants to create stable ballistic orbits in space as far back as the 1600s with his cannonball example.
funny thing is that there are a pretty decent amount of hunter-gatherers who wear tshirts and shit, honestly seems like an amazing lifestyle.
So long as you don't use it to spout off some bullshit like electric universe is some pseudo-philisophical bullshit masquerading as science I agree. Sorry of the madness I was watching professor Dave and my mind is mush.
All science is influenced by the current academic landscape and researchers' funding sources. Now let's discuss my new theory that gravity isn't real. First, we have to understand that 1x1=2...
I mean, how technical do you want to get? Because gravity isn't a real force, assuming Einstein is to be believed.
The second spice girl looks like her pants were drawn using brush tool or something.
I thought they just wanted to Zig-a-zig ha
If you think you have a better method then scientists would love to adopt it. If not, you don't qualify to be my friend or lover, I don't even associate with anti-science types.
Science is heavily resistant to partiality and the negative aspects of societal contexts.
12345
view more: next ›