Cosmos and Beyond
Cosmos and Beyond
- Claim category clarity: Distinguish observation, inference, model output, and speculation.
- Evidence provenance: Which instrument, survey, dataset, mission; calibration status; known limitations.
- Measurement uncertainty: Error bars, systematic bias, signal-to-noise, detection thresholds.
- Model assumptions: Priors, parameter choices, simplifications, and sensitivity.
- Identifiability / degeneracy: Whether multiple models explain the same data equally well.
- Reproducibility and independent confirmation: Whether findings are confirmed by separate instruments, methods, or teams.
- Selection effects: Observational bias, detection bias, survivorship (only observable phenomena counted).
- Causal vs correlational inference: Especially where only observational data exists.
- Scale and regime validity: Whether reasoning valid in one regime is illegitimately extended to another (e.g., planetary → cosmological).
- Physical plausibility: Consistency with established physical laws and constraints (energy, conservation, thermodynamics).
- Alternative hypotheses: Competing explanations and why they were rejected or remain viable.
- Predictive consequences: What the hypothesis predicts that can be observed later (falsifiability signposts).
- Time dynamics: Are timescales and evolution processes coherently modeled?
- Communication integrity: Does the narrative preserve uncertainty, or inflate certainty for persuasion?