KERNEL: Scientific Method

KERNEL: Scientific Method
Primary Source: Wikipedia, Elements of the Scientific Method


I consider the Scientific Method to be the core kernel of knowledge to preserve, and that all else follows from its careful application. Lewis Dartnell has called it "our greatest invention".

In addition to the essentials given below, causality, falsifiability, reproducible results and Occam's Razor are supplementary principles I've added to the kernel.


Original Formulation (quoted from Wikipedia with references removed):

Four essential elements of the scientific method are iterations, recursions, interleavings, or orderings of the following:

• Characterizations (observations, definitions, and measurements of the subject of inquiry)
• Hypotheses (theoretical, hypothetical explanations of observations and measurements of the subject)^.
• Predictions (reasoning including deductive reasoning from the hypothesis or theory)
• Experiments (tests of all of the above)

Each element of the scientific method is subject to peer review for possible mistakes.


Reformulation:

The heart of Scientific Method is repeating these approaches:

• Ask what, how many or how much, and why?
• Ask what if?
• Ask if so, then what?
• Test prediction by experiment.
• If prediction is not confirmed, ask why not?
• Ask that others can reproduce your results.
• Among equivalent explanations, prefer the simpler.
• Repeat.

Poetic Rendition

The Way of Knowing

1. Curiosity

To know is to build a story

A story fit to the world

The world as it is

Begin with wonder
That there is anything at all
That it may be known

Ask of the world what?
Ask of the world how?
Ask of the world why?

Look well to see what is
Record its pulse
Take its measure
Track its path

Imagine where the track leads
Test to see if it be so
Ask of that which does not fit, why not?
And of that which cannot fit, what then?

Be glad when the world surprises you
For error is a doorway to knowing
Let your questions open the world
Not close it off with answer

Question yourself
Question assumption
Question tradition
Question authority

2.  Method

To know is to build a story

A story fit to the world

The world as it is

A well fit story

Explains what is

Foretells what is to come

If a story cannot fit what is

If a story cannot fit what is to come

Let that story go

And build a better

A story is what if

A story that may not be shown false

Is no story at all

***

All things leave a track

Every act changes the world

Every act is the world changing

Mark the changes

Observe each imprint

Follow each to the next

If you would know you must follow

If you would know you must be led

If the trace is lost

Look ahead with all you have learned

Look around with all you have learned

Regain the track

Prefer sign to story
Let go the lure of the tidy line

Prefer what is found to what is forecast
Let go what witness denies

Prefer what is met to what is mapped
Let go what cannot be retraced

Prefer substance to story

Let go what cannot fit

Prefer the simpler account
Let go what is complex beyond need

Test expectation by trial
Let go that which is not confirmed

Compare one trial with another
Let go what will not repeat

Learn from mistake
Let go that which is mistaken

No knowledge is final
The way turns upon itself
A spiral without end

3.  Caution

To know is to build a story

A story fit to the world

The world as it is

Beware of knowledge
For it has neither heart nor mercy
But is heavy with consequence

Remember your heart

Remember mercy

Weigh consequence

Remember that which is taken apart
Is made less than the whole

And might not be made whole again

Remember that we and the world are one
That all lives run together

Wisdom without knowledge is toothless
Knowledge without wisdom is folly

Though all else be forgotten
Here is our greatest gift
To you who come after

May you use it wisely