There's the conclusions you can draw from that data.
In the word "conclusions" you conflate two different things which I wish to keep separate.
One of them is subjective opinion/guesstimate/evaluation/conclusion of a person. I agree that the calibration of the person whose opinion we care about is relevant.
The other is objective facts/observations/measurements/conclusions that do not depend on anyone in particular. That's not just "data" from your first point. That's also conclusions that follow from the data in an explicit, non-subjective way. A study can perfectly well come to some conclusions by showing how the data leads to them without depending on anyone's calibration.
The answer to doubts about the first kind of conclusions is "trust me because I know what I'm talking about". The answer to doubts about the second kind of conclusions is "you don't have to trust me, see for yourself".
The process of science is building new conclusions on the basis of those old conclusions
I continue to disagree. In your concept of science the idea of testing against reality is somewhere in the back row. What's important is achieving consensus and being well-calibrated. I don't think this is what science is about.
In your concept of science the idea of testing against reality is somewhere in the back row. What's important is achieving consensus and being well-calibrated. I don't think this is what science is about.
Let's stop using the word "science" because I don't really care how we define that specific word.
Let's change it instead to "the process of learning things about reality" because that's what I'm talking about. I think it's what you're talking about as well, but traditionally science can also mean "the process of running experim...
Cross-posted from my blog here.
One of the greatest successes of mankind over the last few centuries has been the enormous amount of wealth that has been created. Once upon a time virtually everyone lived in grinding poverty; now, thanks to the forces of science, capitalism and total factor productivity, we produce enough to support a much larger population at a much higher standard of living.
EAs being a highly intellectual lot, our preferred form of ritual celebration is charts. The ordained chart for celebrating this triumph of our people is the Declining Share of People Living in Extreme Poverty Chart.
(Source)
However, as a heretic, I think this chart is a mistake. What is so great about reducing the share? We could achieve that by killing all the poor people, but that would not be a good thing! Life is good, and poverty is not death; it is simply better for it to be rich.
As such, I think this is a much better chart. Here we show the world population. Those in extreme poverty are in purple – not red, for their existence is not bad. Those who the wheels of progress have lifted into wealth unbeknownst to our ancestors, on the other hand, are depicted in blue, rising triumphantly.
Long may their rise continue.