If the facts are contrary to any predictions, then the hypothesis is wrong no matter how appealing.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
If you learn one thing from having lived through decades of changing views, it is that all predictions are necessarily false.
You have to test your hypothesis against other theories. Certainty in the face of complex situations is very dangerous.
Predicting has a spotty record in science fiction. I've had some failures. On the other hand, I also predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of fundamentalist Islam... and I'm not happy to be right in all of those cases.
If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.
I think science fiction is very bad at prediction.
Good tests kill flawed theories; we remain alive to guess again.
I am frequently astonished that it so often results in correct predictions of experimental results.
You can't prove any hypothesis, you can only improve or disprove it.
But that the reasoning from these facts, the drawing from them correct conclusions, is a matter of great difficulty, may be inferred from the imperfect state in which the Science is now found after it has been so long and so intensely studied.
Most physicists like myself won't believe the result until every possible caveat has been investigated and/or the result is confirmed elsewhere.
No opposing quotes found.