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by yolo69420 1551 days ago
science is a pretty long term process. in practice results and consensus stabilizies after around 50 years or so.

the reason it takes so long is that the turnaround time for a single result in science is half a year to a year. imagine discussing something with someone and every sentence you speak could only be uttered after a year.

articles like OP always hinge on some short or medium understanding of science. they try to point out that the whole approach is wrong based on the intermediate results of the process. OP itself is part of this process and the reason why the results will be better and more stabilized a couple of decades from now.

2 comments

> consensus stabilizies after around 50 years or so

One other reason for science being such a long-term process is Planck's Principle:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck%27s_principle

Basically, scientific innovations spread by the old orthodoxy retiring/dying and replaced by successors who are familiarized with the new ideas (and then proceed to form the new orthodoxy).

But there is also the social problem. Incentives and power structures matter, sometimes to a comical degree. Openness and collaboration are fundamental to progress.