Re: The reality of sets, on a scale of 1 to 10 (theory of theories)

On 3/24/2025 12:08 PM, Ross Finlayson wrote:

On 03/24/2025 08:45 AM, Jim Burns wrote:

>

>
Of course neither Big Bang nor Steady State
are falsifiable according to the usual tenets of
never violating time symmetry in physics and
not yet having found the end of the sidewalk or
Flat-Earthers.
>
Either fit the data, any time, ....

A big criticism of using falsifiability
to determine what deserves the label 'science'
is that
a theory can pretty much always be saved
by tweaking in various ways.
(See also Ptolemaic epicycles.)
It seems that a theory can be saved
_and it will be saved_
until a better theory comes along.
Physics is not like mathematics.
If, in some future,
enough evidence makes Flat Earth Theory
a better explanation than Round Earth Theory,
then I would expect Flat Earth Theory
to become the new (old) default explanation.
I can chuckle about Flat Earth Theory,
but we have seen the smashing of theory.idols
at that level.
My memory may have invented this, but
I think 'revolution' as in
'out with the old bastards, in with the new'
was borrowed from Copernicus.