> My question is, why couldn't our current understanding of rocky planets be lacking?
I've got an analogy for you. Lets say at one point you came to the conclusion that 2+2=4 and later I give you two apples and two apples, it would be quite unproductive to stop and ponder "Wait, my question is, why couldn't our understanding of addition be lacking?" Not when you have knowledge on hand to predict that you have four apples. Under-using your knowledge is not something conservative or cautious or in any way virtuous, it's simply wrong.
Searching for new hypotheses is cool, coming with new evidence is cooler, but doubting the hard-earned knowledge without a reason is not. In other words I'd suggest to stubbornly ignore unknown unknowns.
There are people who put their names on "we really went through all possible pathways" and you've put your name on a version of "huh?", excuse me for shortening it so brutally.
Agreed, any knowledge our civilization has is probably lacking to some degree. We kinda succeed by playing what we presently have on hand (and correcting it on the way).
I've got an analogy for you. Lets say at one point you came to the conclusion that 2+2=4 and later I give you two apples and two apples, it would be quite unproductive to stop and ponder "Wait, my question is, why couldn't our understanding of addition be lacking?" Not when you have knowledge on hand to predict that you have four apples. Under-using your knowledge is not something conservative or cautious or in any way virtuous, it's simply wrong.
Searching for new hypotheses is cool, coming with new evidence is cooler, but doubting the hard-earned knowledge without a reason is not. In other words I'd suggest to stubbornly ignore unknown unknowns.
There are people who put their names on "we really went through all possible pathways" and you've put your name on a version of "huh?", excuse me for shortening it so brutally.
Agreed, any knowledge our civilization has is probably lacking to some degree. We kinda succeed by playing what we presently have on hand (and correcting it on the way).