On the other hand, continuing scientific advancement requires an exponential amount of resources and I think we may see a high watermark where we have to come to terms with the unsustainability of objective progress in terms of perpetual growth.

We already look back at the early 20th century futurism's optimism as comical, but if we manage to hold our civilization together for another century or more I suspect we'll look back at today's faith in the practical power of data science as equally naive.

Take a stroll through the clinical descriptions of some common medicines and see how often you see this phrase:

"The exact mechanism of X is unknown, however..."

It's kind of frightening.

(two off the top of my head: http://www.drugs.com/pro/klonopin.html & http://www.drugs.com/pro/prozac-capsules.html)