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Originally Posted by George
I was hoping for a snappy new term for a "want-a-be" theory; an antidote for the anecdotal.
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Maybe something along the lines of "parable" works here. I don't want to suggest there's not a value to making pictures about how we understand things, I just don't think people should think it is science or that the way to establish its validity is to consider how it alleviates anxiety.
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An incipient theory could stumble into something that would validate it as a legitimate theory, but [until then] some special term should exist to minimize the confussion or expectations.
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I would define an incipient theory as one that makes predictions but it is unknown if the predictions are borne out. Multiverses aren't even that, they are delivered in essentially the final form that they will ever have, which is why no one is saying "I can't wait until we have the next supercollider up and running so we can test this idea".
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Here is one suggestion for an incipient theory.... Thark. It is a theory that is just bark, thus no bite. "The multiverse thark", hmmm, maybe not.
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It's no worse than "meme"!