/sci/ - Science & Math

I'm a little worried by how some leading physicists treat some of theoretical physics like string theory and dark matter as though it's objective reality.

I understand there's a practical need, in order for theory to be consistent across experimental data, that we imagine these possible scenarios.

The idea that our spiral galaxy contains a donut of dark matter or that particles can be modeled as 1D vibrating strings are practical tools born out of a need to explain discrepancy between observed phenomena (experimental data) and theory.

But we simply shouldn't pretend it's OK to presume our current model to be objective reality. Especially when aspects of the model are virtually unfalsifiable. In most sciences, we'd simply say, "I don't know, but we have this idea that has decent predictive power in practice". Hawking says, "this is the best model we have; we can't be very certain about it, but because it's the most fitting idea we've had thus far, it's OK to assume it's objective truth".

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