• neptune@dmv.social
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    1 year ago

    Scientifically, we cannot yet talk about theories that are untestable and unfalsifiable. Sure, math or some other theory may imply other dimensions or parellel universes, but how will you measure one?

      • howrar@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        How can you test/falsify the existence of something you can’t interact with in any way?

        • bostonbananarama@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Most likely you couldn’t. But sometimes you can be aware of something (X) simply by seeing the effect it has on other things, even if you can’t directly observe X. Think of Pluto, dark matter and dark energy; didn’t/don’t know what it is, but we know something is there.

          My original comment was pointing out that a scientific theory is a framework that takes into account all the data. So something that is untestable and unfalsifiable definitionally could not be a theory. You’d be in hypothesis territory at best, but likely just conjecture.

          • howrar@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Right, thanks for the clarification. Although in this context, the “theory” in question is the existence of alternate universes, so the most logical interpretation of your comment is that it is possible to test for the existence of an alternate universe.

      • skulblaka@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        There are a great many theories that are untestable and unfalsifiable. The existence of a God or a Creator is a hotly debated one, for instance.

          • Cosmicomical@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I think I know what you mean but if it’s what I think you are doing a terrible job at explaining it. Theories in the scientific jargon are not the same as theories in the common parlance. What the commoner calls a “theory” is what we call a conjecture or an hypothesis. A theory in science is a summarization of experimental results, so if this is your take, I get your point.

        • bostonbananarama@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          God is not a theory. There are no facts to support it and it has no predictive capabilities.

          Evolution is a theory that demonstrates that species change via changes in genes. It is supported by facts and studies across multiple disciplines and has predictive capabilities.

          One is science, the other is mythology.

    • howrar@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      If your mathematical model tells you something should exist, doesn’t that necessarily mean that it’s something you can interact with, and thus measure given sufficiently advanced technology?

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Interestingly, parts of this universe are right now becoming unmeasurable, un observable, unfalsifiable to us even now. With dark energy propelling the expansion of space at an increasing rate, far-away regions of space can be moving away from us faster than light. This means they’re no longer part of our observable universe - we’ll never be able to reach them, see light from there, interact with these places in any way. Not the same universe anymore.

      Someday living beings in the Milky Way might believe it’s the only galaxy that exists because no others will be observed. If one of them postulates that maybe there are all these other galaxies that are just out of reach - pinched off from our universe - in parallel universes you might say…. if someone says all that, it could also be just as handily dismissed.