“… there is no way to know when our observations about complex events in nature are complete. Our knowledge is finite, Karl Popper emphasised, but our ignorance is infinite. … [W]e can never be certain about the consequences of our interventions, we can only narrow the area of uncertainty. This admission is not as pessimistic as it sounds: claims that resist repeated energetic challenges often turn out to be quite reliable. Such ‘working truths’ are the building blocks for the reasonably solid structures that support our everyday actions…” (Silverman, 1998)
References
Silverman, W. A. (1998). Non-replication of the replicable (1996). In Where’s the evidence? Debates in modern medicine. Oxford University Press.