Other issue is that the process should be difficult to maliciously subvert (or non maliciously by rationalization of erroneous belief). That results in a boatload of features that may be frustrating to those wanting to introduce unjustified untestable propositions for fun and profit (or to justify erroneous beliefs).
Hrm. My impression is that science mostly isn't organized to catch malicious fraud. It's comparatively rare for outsiders to do a real audit of data or experimental method, particularly if the result isn't super exciting. In compensation, the penalties for being caught falsifying data are ferocious -- I believe it's treated as an absolute career-ending move.
I agree that the process is pretty good at squelching over-enthusiastic rationalization. That's an aspect I thought Yudkowsky captured quite well.
Today's post, Science Doesn't Trust Your Rationality was originally published on 14 May 2008. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):
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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was The Dilemma: Science or Bayes?, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.
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