Kevin Kelly: Speculations on the Future of Science

Fascinating look at where we may be headed, this paper starts with an overview of recursive devices (from Stewart Brand's introduction):

2000 BC — First text indexes 200 BC — Cataloged library (at Alexandria) 1000 AD — Collaborative encyclopedia 1590 — Controlled experiment (Roger Bacon) 1600 — Laboratory 1609 — Telescopes and microscopes 1650 — Society of experts 1665 — Repeatability (Robert Boyle) 1665 — Scholarly journals 1675 — Peer review 1687 — Hypothesis/prediction (Isaac Newton) 1920 — Falsifiability (Karl Popper) 1926 — Randomized design (Ronald Fisher) 1937 — Controlled placebo 1946 — Computer simulation 1950 — Double blind experiment 1962 — Study of scientific method (Thomas Kuhn)

The paper lists a number of possible near term advances: Compiled Negative Results, Triple Blind Experiments, Combinatorial Sweep Exploration, Evolutionary Search, Multiple Hypothesis Matrix, Pattern Augmentation, Adaptive Real Time Experiments, AI Proofs, Wiki-Science, Defined Benefit Funding, Zillionics ("Ubiquitous always-on sensors in bodies and environment will transform medical, environmental, and space sciences. Unrelenting rivers of sensory data will flow day and night from zillions of sources."), Deep Simulations, Hyper-analysis Mapping, and Return of the Subjective.