Either we can test and measure or we cannot. If we can’t test a concept then there are no means through which to determine it is a beneficial, detrimental, or neutral concept. If the goal is increasing human and environmental wellbeing we can definitely create measures to ensure an idea when employed is getting us closer to said goal, taking us further away, or it has a neutral effect. Once again if there is no means through which to test there is necessarily no way to determine if the concept (hypothesis) is correct or not.
My point is not that we should not test. My point is that we should, and that we can draw connected conclusions based on test results that enable us to predict outcomes in similar situations and conditions, but that which are fundamentally novel. This is why we have a theory of gravity, we can observe how physics works generally to apply to new particular instances, rather than testing it each and every time.
Either we can test and measure or we cannot. If we can’t test a concept then there are no means through which to determine it is a beneficial, detrimental, or neutral concept. If the goal is increasing human and environmental wellbeing we can definitely create measures to ensure an idea when employed is getting us closer to said goal, taking us further away, or it has a neutral effect. Once again if there is no means through which to test there is necessarily no way to determine if the concept (hypothesis) is correct or not.
My point is not that we should not test. My point is that we should, and that we can draw connected conclusions based on test results that enable us to predict outcomes in similar situations and conditions, but that which are fundamentally novel. This is why we have a theory of gravity, we can observe how physics works generally to apply to new particular instances, rather than testing it each and every time.