On occasion I’ve had conversations with people where I can’t help but think “You
keep using that word.
I do not think it means what you think it means.”
This might be more a truism than M. Montoya ever intended.
Most words in the English language have more than just one definition, either related or
unrelated to a core, central concept.
Add to that the individual and cultural meanings of words, and what we have is a recipe for
unintentional ambiguity and misunderstandings, where two people of different backgrounds
could be using the same word, in a similar context, but mean something completely different.
This is far too often a problem between the scientific community and the rest of the world,
and perhaps one of the biggest problem terms is the word “theory”.
A theory in any context is an explanation of how or why the universe, or some part of
it, is the way that it is, or works the way that it works.
In our day-to-day use of the word, most of us see it as guess or untested idea, something
that might be true or not.
It’s okay to believe a theory or not, because all theories are guesses from people who are
just like me, and are therefore equal in value.
But in the hard sciences, this is usually what theory means.
One way theory is used is to group all the knowledge of a subject, separate from the
application of the subject.
Already we can see potential problems with this use of the word theory, if we were to
assume that it means an untested idea or a guess.
But there’s another use of the word, one that has almost the exact opposite meaning
of a guess, requiring an explanation to be built on established and repeatedly tested
ideas.
This is scientific theory.
In order for any explanation to be a scientific theory, it has to meet a pretty specific set
of criteria:
First: Generality.
A scientific theory needs to be built on lots of different bits of evidence and not just
a single result or observation.
This makes sure that the theory applies in all cases, within the normal statistical variation.
Second: Falsifiability.
While being general in nature, a scientific theory also has to make specific predictions
and be testable in a way that could prove the theory wrong.
Yes, wrong.
In science it’s actually not possible to prove anything right, since getting the results
predicted by one theory doesn’t exclude the possibility of another explanation.
So instead, scientists run experiments to try to and get results that aren’t predicted,
to prove the theory wrong, and a theory is only considered valid when no experiment run
does.
A theory that isn’t testable isn’t science.
Third: Consistency.
A scientific theory has to be able to explain all relevant, existing experimental data,
and predict outcomes as good as, or better, accuracy than existing theories on the subject.
Because in science you don’t get to pick and choose your facts.
These three points are the most important when establishing scientific theory.
But strong theories usually have two additional attributes: adaptability, and parsimony.
No theory is perfect at the time of its creation, but strong theories are able to adapt to new
information, with only small changes or extensions while maintaining their core ideas.
And at the same time, strong theories are parsimonious, meaning they tend to follow
the principles of Occam’s razor: when faced with two different theories of equal predictive
power, usually the simplest, or the one with the least number of parts, more closely matches
how the universe works
True scientific theories are the absolute best of scientific understanding.
They’re consistent with centuries of scientific inquiry, and have weathered every test designed
to prove them wrong.
Whether you believe them or not, they’re as close to fact or truth as science is ever
willing to state, so as to always leave room for more learning and new understanding.
Treating them as a guess… is a pretty big misunderstanding.
For Tech Laboratories, I’m Tech Adams, saying keep thinking, and thanks for watching.
What’s been your experience talking about theories?
Or where else have you seen confusion coming from different definitions of words?
Let me know in the comments below, and while you’re at it, subscribe to Tech Laboratories
for more videos on science and technology.
See you next time!