In the science-fiction novel "The Three-Body Problem", all the "scientist" characters seem to think they can't draw inferences about a system unless they can characterize how every part of the system works. The only character who deduces anything is a cop.
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Real science is not saying "more research is needed" until every conceivable part of a system is mapped. It's knowing which conclusions you can draw -- and *can't* draw -- from the always limited data available.
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Sometimes that means you can draw a practical conclusion -- "this intervention improves this outcome" -- without knowing how it works!
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Sometimes I wonder if the awesome powers given to us by molecular biology -- genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, etc -- have trained some to believe that biology is like a coloring book where you're not "done" till every piece is colored.
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The different understandings of causality in biology and physics have been noted and studied by philosophers of science. (Can point you at things to read if interested.)
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FWIW, I tentatively think biologists are right about biology. To simplify somewhat, the systems are so complex, and the experiments so sloppy, that unless you have a mechanistic understanding, you are probably fooling yourself.
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This critique of biologists needing mechanism to believe something is totally fair. That’s part of why Mendel was such a badass, and why he was ignored for 40 years until people had better mechanisms that could explain the concept of the gene.
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Not sure what mechanisms you're referring to here. At the time Mendelian genetics was rediscovered, the concept of the gene was entirely theoretical. Nobody had any idea what a gene was physically, as far as I know.
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Or maybe that popular mathematization of causality (the map) doesn't actually capture the ordinary human notion of causality (the territory)
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