| Group think is not the problem. Certainty is. Dark matter arose because of gaps in the current particle theory. These gaps grow the further out we observe and become significant enough to disqualify gravity as a constant for the formation of galaxies. Dark matter provides an incomplete solution to these gaps just as dark energy is an incomplete stop gap to Einstein’s cosmological constant. The logic is as follows: * There are gaps in current models that otherwise invalidates math and disqualifies observed measures. * Dark matter/energy provide a partial solution that may or may not exist but are sufficient to performed qualified measures across observed space. * Therefore dark matter/energy provide utility value that for conducting measures that otherwise observationally contradict. * Therefore dark matter/energy must be because they are qualified as such by the math. This problem is syllogistic wherein a series of propositions are individually true and linked so therefore the conclusion of such linkage must be true, but it isn’t. In physics truths exist as proofs. The problem isn’t that dark matter exists or not, but that incomplete logic demands it must exist. Again, it is a confidence problem, that it must exist and anything to the contrary should be censored to hell. People have staked their entire professional reputations on this confidence built on logic, not observation. The actual physics problem that produces all this mess in the first place is observational limitation. Already the JWST is slowly peeling back some reliance on magic solutions allowing for alternate considerations and better math. Ultimately we will need to observe the universe from outside the solar system and it’s internal distortions. |
To a substantial extent, it kinda feels like what you're describing is literally the scientific method. We discover observations that are inconsistent with existing models, so we develop a new model that (within their realm of validity) correctly match the data, and when we continue to find that the new model successfully describes new observations our confidence in the model goes up (and eventually rises to the level of saying "this seems to be a correct description of reality").
Maybe if I understood the exact meaning of your words here, I'd understand how what you're talking about differs from that and what your concerns are. But as I've said elsewhere, I really don't see where this is a "confidence problem", and I've never had reason to believe that alternatives are "censored to hell". There are people who've built entire careers publishing papers studying MOND, after all. It just doesn't seem to work as well as dark matter (Lambda-CDM) to explain the copious data that we now have.
And I'll definitely push back (again) against calling the case for dark matter "an observational limitation". These are quantitative, positive observations that demand some model to explain them. The specific quantitative amounts and distributions of dark matter necessary to explain galaxy rotation curves also turned out to be the same specific details necessary to explain gravitational lensing observations. As new observations have come in over the years, the case for dark matter has gotten stronger. (That's why it's become a dominant belief among experts.) So I genuinely don't have any idea what you're getting at with those comments.