Becoming Less Wrong

410 error - Gone This is a small letter discussing two opposing points of view:1) Getting it right. The idea that we progress toward some "right" that is out there.2) Getting it less wrong. The idea that we progress from where we have been.The author suggests the latter is the correct view of science.For discussion I think this is an "Is it Science" topic or maybe just coffee house.

I think the article would disagree:The problem is to be moving toward "more right" you have to have a goal ahead. This is not what we do in science, e.g. Getting to be less wrong is only moving relative to what we have now; moving away from the erroneous part. There is no goal that we are moving toward.If you say we are "more right" you have the idea of the Right that is out there and that we move toward. The philosophical differences are large.

This is all a bit subtle, maybe so subtle it's not even really there but I think the point is we don't have a goal to move toward. All we can do is move away from wrongness. We don't actually know if that is necessarily toward "right".There may be a lot of different paths all of which lead away from wrong but some may not be heading directly toward right. For example, GR is less wrong than Newton's ideas of gravitation. That has been shown. However, what if the "right" answer is something utterly different from GR. It is a blind alley in itself. Maybe one of the new multi dimensional thingies is off in a different direction and less wrong than GR but still not heading in whatever might be the right direction either.