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Posted on Apr 19, 2023Read on Mirror.xyz

Scientific Methods and the Decentralization of Science

TL;DR but you want to take Action:

Science

Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the Universe. This systematic endeavor is driven by the Scientific Method, which seeks to explain – objectively – the events of Nature in a way that is reproducible. According to the National Research Council of the United States,

Scientific Inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence derived from their work.

Emphasis is placed above on diversity, because the fundamental purpose of Science can be summed up as:

With this in mind, “Neuroscience of Ethereum: Decentralized Science for a Human Node Network” was campaigned for in the inaugural Decentralized Science #DeSci Gitcoin Grants round in Q3 2022.

Everything is constantly in flux; stasis is illusion. As the following quote conveys eloquently, knowledge that things are constantly in flux is different from knowledge about why:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Models_of_scientific_inquiry

The former is descriptive, whereas the latter is explanatory – and this latter understanding of why things are in flux, ultimately creates and delivers Value to Humanity & Society. This is fuel for Applied Science. Pursuit of knowledge for the sake of proving that which is already known does not add Value – or in economic terms, create Marginal Utility – for anyone. It is simply descriptive. In Bayesian terms, it confirms Prior Beliefs.

Relevance

Everything is constantly in flux; this applies to Science and the Scientific Method as well. Throughout history, Science has been advanced by way of Models of Scientific Inquiry such as the Classical Model (Aristotle), Pragmatic Model of Truth, or Logical Empiricism which have evolved over time. Moreover, there are varying schools of thoughts within the Philosophy of Science, which itself questions what qualifies as Science, constitutes the reliability of Scientific Theories, and explores the purpose of Science.

Inevitably then, Objectivity is grounded in Subjectivity - that is, Empirical Subjectivity regarding the Commensurability of Science: Consensus.

This impermanent, dynamic, or evolutionary Model of Scientific discovery & progress was advanced by Thomas Kuhn in the Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Its publication was a landmark event as it challenged the then prevailing “development-by-accumulation” view of Scientific progress. Instead, Kuhn argued, Scientific change unfolded through phases towards Paradigmatic shifts:

This stood in stark contrast to the Critical Rationalism position championed by Karl Popper in the Logic of Scientific Discovery, who claimed:

Cyclical vs. Linear; Phasic vs. Tonic

One of the many lessons learned after years of standardized testing is: words like “always” and “only” are extremes, and therefore such statements can never represent the truth – see what we did there?

Jokes aside, the Scientific Method became governed by a policy of empirical falsification: a theory or hypothesis is falsifiable or refutable if it can be logically contradicted by an empirical test. He further claimed “there is only one universal method, not specific to science: the negative method of criticism, trial and error, covering all products of the human mind, including science, mathematics, philosophy, and art.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_science

Such “an asymmetry between verifiability and falsifiability; an asymmetry which results from the logical form of universal statements...for those are never derivable from singular statements, but can be contradicted from singular statements” served us well up until we encountered anomalies that could no longer be accounted for - which brings us all to today, in the post-COVID era.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Scientific_Discovery

Centralized Science in Traditional Academia

Within the siloed realms of Academia, reverberate the resounding echoes of this “development-by-accumulation” mandate of Science.

Institutionalized Science seeks not to discover the why, but to repeatedly establish that which has already been conceptually known.

Science has turned into an Ego measuring contest, where the success of a Researcher is reflected not by their contributions to the advancement of Humanity & Society – but by the number of publications one can associate with one’s identity.

This is not Theory, but Practice.

We are plagued by a multitude of crises, and there appears to be no feasible reversal in sight. Instead of gathering evidence against the null hypothesis to disprove it, the mechanism design and incentive structures of Centralized Science seek to gather evidence for the purposes of proving the hypotheses in mind. Blinded by an asymmetric weighting towards Critical Rationalism – Ego – we are perpetually unwittingly committing what are known as Type I Errors: False Positives.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Mcat/comments/ao6ovi/type_i_and_type_ii_errors/

Incorrect inferences are drawn about the association of a given variable with the hypothesis or question in mind. This applies to psychotropic medications broadly, and more recently, the role of COVID-19. Critical Rationalism has led us to over-indulge in confirmation bias, and this self-reinforcing heuristic has been compounded by limitations of the pre-COVID Scientific Paradigm where hypotheses are tested in tightly controlled experimental settings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method#Beliefs_and_biases

This is particularly evident in the disciplines of Academic Psychology and Psychiatry, where profound contributions of pioneering thought leaders are discarded at the expense of empirically verifiable knowledge:

Excerpt from The Wisdom of Dreams

As the authorities on Sleep & Dream Science articulate in The Wisdom of Dreams: Science, Synchronicity, and the Language of the Soul, our approach to Mental Healthcare is largely governed by Scientism: the belief that the only valid type of knowledge is the empirical, verifiable knowledge of Science. In Mental Health & Psychiatry, people benefit with psychotropics, and not exclusively due to psychotropics because the prescription of these medications fosters inter-connectedness and relationships (social capital) between Patients & Physicians. This antagonizes the detrimental effects of isolation that promote the Loneliness Epidemic. On the other hand, poly-pharmacy perpetuates our Obesity Epidemic. Similar dynamics contribute to the Opioid Epidemic and Sleep Epidemic as well.

Are we adequately distinguishing between Correlation and Causality? Are we certain that COVID is as virulent and dangerous as the science conducted within our present paradigm may lead us to infer?

In essence, there is asymmetric focus on superficial or topical symptom mitigation at the expense of addressing underlying root causes.

Personally,

this was the rationale behind my exit from Centralized Science & Traditional Academia after publishing my one and only paper - Effective Connectivity of Ascending and Descending Frontalthalamic Pathways During Sustained Attention: Complex Brain Network Interactions in Adolescence. With the help of my lab and mentor, I gleaned many Insights. The grueling process of publication also oriented me to the importance of Applied Science. So here we have applied the following insight:

Our Nervous System & Psyche are governed by Dynamic Causal Models (of the World) which are continuously evaluated and weighted in real time with Exceedence Probabilities, resulting in a clear “Winning Model of the World.” I.e., many hypotheses (Models) are weighed against each other, and Model Evidence is gathered to disprove the null hypothesis (Bayesian Model Selection; BMS).

This is the opposite of gathering evidence in order to prove a hypothesis in mind. Our templates guide us to avoid Type I Errors, but of course the question is perennially that of Nature vs. Nurture.

Insights are meaningful because they offer explanatory knowledge – the why. Applying these Insights to our present scenario in the world of Distributed Ledgers and Peer-to-Peer Consensus in web3, we are likely to find ourselves in Phase 3:

In order to account for such anomalies and resolve our collective crises, the Decentralization of Science must ensue

#DeSci