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Today I "conducted an experiment". Which means that I went to a grocery store, did laundry, and took a walk in a park. Between all that, I checked once in a whi

Today I "conducted an experiment". Which means that I went to a grocery store, did laundry, and took a walk in a park. Between all that, I checked once in a while that things were proceeding as expected. The outcome of that experiment is probably never going to be reported, except maybe if something unexpected happens. Real science is full of messy exploratory work. It's sometimes done remotely, and often in short stretches regardless of what time and day it is. And you usually don't know in advance if it's going to be relevant. At some point, you may start believing that you have discovered something other people may care about. Then you start thinking about the normative experiments that are supposed to demonstrate the result and perhaps even validate it. But at that point, most of the work is often already done. The discovery has already been made (or at least you believe so) and you are just trying to replicate it. Maybe you could record those experiments if you are really into it. But the recordings would likely be meaningless without the actual written report.

gmd63 3y ago
"Checked that things were proceeding as expected" meaning that there is some process going on that you could be recording? I don't think it's fair to paint recordings of exploratory work as meaningless. You obviously have some interest in it or else you wouldn't be doing it. If you don't share that experience, wouldn't someone else spend time trying the same thing?
- jltsiren 3y ago
  In my case, it was just code running on a single cloud instance. For someone a bit upstream from me, it could have been a commercially made device doing its stuff, with the details being trade secrets of its manufacturer. Computers have made science boring to watch. Many things are now automated and run 24/7. Even if you happen to be on site, there may not be much to see. In many situations, automation also makes doing things on your own easier than trying to determine if someone has already done similar experiments. If you are doing exploratory work, there is often no established terminology for the topic. Even if a report of prior experiments exists, it can be difficult to determine if it's discussing the same thing. (AI could plausibly help here.)

gmd63 3y ago

"Checked that things were proceeding as expected" meaning that there is some process going on that you could be recording? I don't think it's fair to paint recordings of exploratory work as meaningless. You obviously have some interest in it or else you wouldn't be doing it. If you don't share that experience, wouldn't someone else spend time trying the same thing?

jltsiren 3y ago
In my case, it was just code running on a single cloud instance. For someone a bit upstream from me, it could have been a commercially made device doing its stuff, with the details being trade secrets of its manufacturer. Computers have made science boring to watch. Many things are now automated and run 24/7. Even if you happen to be on site, there may not be much to see. In many situations, automation also makes doing things on your own easier than trying to determine if someone has already done similar experiments. If you are doing exploratory work, there is often no established terminology for the topic. Even if a report of prior experiments exists, it can be difficult to determine if it's discussing the same thing. (AI could plausibly help here.)