A Cautionary Lesson

Abstract

Abstract This chapter provides a final caution: a virtuous tangle doesn’t ensure a scientific product is reliable. Using the example of gravitational wave energy we show how two scientific accounts, aimed at explaining the same phenomenon for the same purpose, can both have overwhelmingly virtuous tangles and yet be incompatible. So one must be giving the wrong answer, despite looking like a good account according to our theory of scientific reliability. The tangle, then, is a guide to reliability, rather than a guarantor.