Why you think you should not give importance to the study of the possibility of the existence of dark matter / energy , multidimensional theories , worm tubes , and other theories that have not been tested yet? (They are made on paper ! )
Recall that the theory of relativity, theory of evolution of Darwin and others were not accepted by the scientific community in its principles. There were writen on paper before being confirmed after many years. An example of this is: Albert Einstein in his theory of general relativity predicts that the path of light bends in a gravitational field. This was no positive proof until many years after his death. This was confirmed during observasion of light in an eclipse.
I do not think so. In my opinion untested theories are interesting
(if they are based on interesting or elegant ideas).
And I fully agree with the answer by Dr.Uryson. I think that the basic aim of science is exploring unknown facts and theories, so studies of untested theories are definitely important. If for no other reason, then to prove them wrong or right. And a correction to the formulation of the question: as far as I remember, the GR theory was proved for the first time by an expedition led by Arthur Eddington just a couple of years after Einstein published it.
They are important so that some one like you prove that they are not true. They may be untested but they are formulated on the basis of theory. That is the way science develops.
The question by Luis is formulated in a very awkward way -- is the author implying that untested theories should not be pursued or the other way around? I guess what he wanted to say is that they should be pursued, with which most of us would agree, but then it is truism, a bit too trivial to have a serious discussion about it.
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