(September 11, 2014 at 8:43 pm)sswhateverlove Wrote:You seem to think we have to control these other effects (like physically turn them on/off). This is not the case. We can do experiments on unknowns by already compensating for the effects that are known. This is how we discovered a lot things from like plants breathing oxygen and dark matter. I'm willing to wager that this is how most things are discovered in science these days.(September 11, 2014 at 4:09 pm)Surgenator Wrote: No. I don't need to know anything about the strong nuclear force or electromagnetic radiation to know that adding heat to liquid water will make it boil. A construction worker doesn't need to know the world is spherical to build a road.
As my examples demonstrate, the precision you want determines which variables you need to control. I can reach 95% or 99.99999% on a lot of things science has already discovered. 100% confidence is statistically impossible.
I agree that there are some things that we can learn from doing experiments that have uncontrolled variables and that learning those things is obviously beneficial for navigating our world. However, with regard to trying to understand the nature of reality, the uncontrollable variables seem very important.
Dark matter and dark energy are important to understanding the nature of reality. There level of importance depends on the specific question your asking. If your asking why entanglement occurs, dark matter and dark energy are not relevant to the answer. If your asking how the universe began, they are very relevant.
Quote:Why does it matter? Why do I care? With regard to the bother of pondering such things, Tyson said the question becomes "How big of a Universe do you want to live in? Some like it small, and that's fine; understandable. But I like it big." I do tooI don't think I asked this question. And I also like to understand the universe I'm living for curiosity's sake.
