Inference and its role in NS (General)

by David Turell , Sunday, January 16, 2011, 00:29 (4870 days ago) @ xeno6696


> This post is about the role of inference in phylogeny. It discusses something called the "grue" problem. If you read the article, it explains this problem well. 
> 1. Science is ONLY about model building. (Though scientists and the general public tend to forget this...) 
> 
> 2. Inference always inherits the problem of probabilities... meaning, that, science (using inference as its primary tool) is only every about probabilities, and that this means that though we would like them to be dogmatic, scientific "truths" are always approximations.-Another probability about NS is that competition may be a minor issue and land, air or sea 'space', when available, may allow for rapid diversification of species which is as the fossil record indicates. Dinosaurs died out and small mammals rapidly diversified:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11063939