When is some information too much information? When it can impede scientific progress, according to Roberto Trotta of the Imperial College London. He’s worried that if we know too much at once, we’ll be unable to create new theories.
Trotta’s concern is mainly focused on information from the European Space Agency’s Planck mission, due to be released in 2013. The amount of information – called “a feast” by New Scientist – may overwhelm cosmologists, according to Trotta, who feels that the release of the mission’s findings should be rationed to be more easily understandable. Stuart Clark, writing for NS, agrees:
Instead of giving out all the data at once, the supply should be rationed. Drip-feeding will allow the development of new hypotheses which can be tested as more of the Planck information is released. If we don’t adopt this approach, we risk wasting the finest cosmology data set we have ever had, and remaining forever in the dark.
We’re unconvinced that this is the right approach: Surely dripfeeding information risks avoiding the creation of new hypotheses if the right combination of findings can’t be made, because certain information is still classified? Doesn’t releasing everything at once simply speed up progress?
Why we shouldn’t release all we know about the cosmos [New Scientist]
