I think you're taking a wrong look at this paper. This paper isn't actually about whether or not type 3 societies exist. This paper is about the fact that there appear to be no galactic clusters that show a particularly abnormal, greater, amount of electromagnetic emission than the known standard. Which, actually, I'm pretty dang surprised hasn't been searched for already. Then, in order to be a little whimsical and make sure the paper gets read, (s)he explains where they came up with the idea for this experiment.

Seems to me like a completely rationale thing to measure about the universe. Imagine if the result had come back true?

> This paper isn't actually about whether or not type 3 societies exist.

Ah, I see. It's a play on words. "Apparently" is meant as "is visible", not in the sense of "this is true". Astronomer humor.

Obviously, this result is just because there is a type 3 society in every galaxy.

The "dismal science" thing has nothing to do with scientific standards. It was an expression coined and used by Thomas Carlyle in satirical essay in favor of slavery to refer to political economy because economist's support for emancipation.

But I get what you mean.

As for the origin of the quotation yes -- but it has been used to talk about scientific standards in Economy ever since it was coined -- there are even a couple of books with that exact name on the topic.