[ssivark]

The “Fuck yeah SOYENCE” crowd doesn’t realize that science (as a process) can only hope to get to the truth in the asymptotic (infinite) future. The path to getting there is incredibly messy, especially because it is carried out by sacks of meat and emotions (cue: Planck’s observation that science progresses one funeral at a time).

At any finite time, it is difficult to guarantee that science has the correct answer — especially in ”complex systems” where many factors interact, including through feedback loops. The very idea of repeatable controlled experiments (at the heart of the scientific method) is fundamentally limited in its ability to address such systems. So for all practical purposes, decisions (be it individual, or policy) need to often accommodate uncertainty/incompleteness in knowledge and try to “convexify exposure” — rather than trying to bank on having the correct & complete knowledge.