Science theory and advancement
     The role of science in humanity's improvement is obvious. Much improvement was due to experimentation to learn which ideas work, which don't, and why. Important advances in medicine, transportation, communication, agriculture, and other fields were due to Edison-like creativity, experimentation, and observation. Equally important were advances in understanding how nature works. This was important because ignorance of our environments and ourselves caused no end of problems including wars, oppression, counterproductive medical treatments, discrimination, overpopulation, and harmful side effects of technologies.

      The many false scientific theories of the distant and recent past show that science is not immune to ignorance. We use Ptolemy's geocentric model of the cosmos as a classic example of scientific "intellectual inertia" that inhibits consideration of better ways of thinking. Ptolemy's theory was perpetuated for centuries when a better, heliocentric model was available. The following statement from Wikipedia * reflects current intellectual inertia and certainty that a light propagating medium does not exist.

Sadly, this statement about the mindset of the majority of physicists is true. They are not disposed to learn how an aether-like quantum medium explains the strange constant speed of light, c, which they cannot explain. The fact that the logical consequences of the qm explain perfectly a wide range of perplexing phenomena (including phenomena that relativity theory does not explain) is very strong "evidence for its existence." The "assumption of its existence" results in physical causes for many important phenomena (e.g. mass/energy, inertia, gravity) and it avoids having to combine physical space and time into the artificial notion of spacetime, but the majority of physicists are not disposed to learn about this. Although relativity theory does not need to posit the existence of a medium, it posits the constant speed of every photon through all inertial frames, a physical condition that is illogical and inexplicable. Many highly regarded physicists including Maxwell, Lorentz, Michelson, and Dirac had no difficulty assuming that light is propagated through a medium. As for quantum mechanics having no need for positing a medium, quantum mechanics posits a quantum vacuum, which may turn out to be the qm. We suspect that the qm view fits with quantum mechanics better than relativity theory fits, but this remains to be seen.

      The Wikipedia statement above, and the article containing the statement, do not mention the importance of a theory's ability or inability to explain the physical causes for observed phenomena. When the physical causes for phenomena are not understood, misleading causes are imagined. Ptolemaic theory imagined that circular motion is an innate property of all heavenly bodies. Relativity theory imagines that relative motion is responsible for the slowing of moving clocks and for other "relativistic phenomena." The theory fosters unrealistic notions such as time travel to visit the past. Relativity theory correctly specifies that the observed rate of a clock can be changed by changing the observer's velocity, but relativity theory cannot explain why the rate of the clock changes. Relativity theory makes it appear that the change in relative velocity is the cause. This simplistic explanation might be preferred by those who use Occam's razor for distinguishing good theories from bad. The qm view shows that this simple explanation is very likely a misleading explanation because there is a far more plausible explanation.

      Perhaps the criteria for good scientific theories should include more than agreement with experimental evidence and simplicity in accordance with Occam's razor. Perhaps logical premises, logical conclusions, consilience with the rest of human knowledge, and the ability to explain plausible physical causes for phenomena (thereby helping understand nature) should also be included. Scientists can make science what they want by tailoring the ground rules of science. Certainly science is easier if theories need only be accurate mathematical correlations of observed phenomena. But this can slow the advancement of science by perpetuating ignorance about what is causing the observations, as Ptolemaic theory and probably spacetime theory show.