Firstly, on a historical basis, many of the greatest scientists were clearly aiming for explanation not prediction.
In all of your examples, the new theory allowed making predictions, either more correct than previous ones (relativity, astronomy) or in situations that were previously completely un-predictable (evolution). Scientists expected good predictions to follow from good explanations, and they were in large part motivated by it.
Wiener, on the other hand, is saying it doesn’t matter what explanation you choose if all explanations yield the same prediction, in a particular field of study or experiment. And you don’t need explanations at all if they can’t ever yield different predictions (in any possible experiment). That’s a different statement.
I think that taking prediction to be the point of doing science is misguided in a few ways.
This seems to be just a matter of definitions. Scientists are human beings, they have a wide variety of interests and goals. You can label a more narrow subset of them “science”, and then say that some of what they’re doing “isn’t science”. Or you can label everything they tend to do as “science”, because it tends to come together. But the question “what is the real point of doing science?” is just a matter of definition.
When pointing to a name like Wiener it would be great to have the full name to be able to google who you mean. In this case Norbert Wiener seems me best guess?
In all of your examples, the new theory allowed making predictions, either more correct than previous ones (relativity, astronomy) or in situations that were previously completely un-predictable (evolution). Scientists expected good predictions to follow from good explanations, and they were in large part motivated by it.
Wiener, on the other hand, is saying it doesn’t matter what explanation you choose if all explanations yield the same prediction, in a particular field of study or experiment. And you don’t need explanations at all if they can’t ever yield different predictions (in any possible experiment). That’s a different statement.
This seems to be just a matter of definitions. Scientists are human beings, they have a wide variety of interests and goals. You can label a more narrow subset of them “science”, and then say that some of what they’re doing “isn’t science”. Or you can label everything they tend to do as “science”, because it tends to come together. But the question “what is the real point of doing science?” is just a matter of definition.
When pointing to a name like Wiener it would be great to have the full name to be able to google who you mean. In this case Norbert Wiener seems me best guess?