This is a constant bug/feature of human thought. When we try to see beyond the limits of our technology we find it irresistible promote explanations that can't be proved yet. Often these placeholder theories turn out to be complete nonsense (epicycles). Often they are incredibly convincing (Dark Matter), and sometimes they even turn out to be mostly correct - so this process is generally a good thing.
Where we run into trouble is by assigning too much credence (or too little skepticism) for that which has not been proven yet. This can be counter-productive as it may stifle research into other areas (in this case gravity). When we take the "best current theory" and deride skeptics of it to the point that it discourages other areas of investigation, that's a bug, not a feature.
Our current understanding of gravity is woefully inadequate, as shown by our inability to reproducibly measure the gravitational constant as well as we should be able to with current technology. The flyby anomaly is another example where DM does not help. I hope that the current popularity of DM does not stifle research into gravity.
Epicycles had low predictive power and was needlessly complicated compared to later theories, but it wasn't "nonsense"; the predictions the theory made about the relative positions of the Earth and planets were pretty accurate.
And thanks to our knowledge of Fourier Series we could come up with an even more accurate epicyclic model today! It's only when you try to explain tides or Lagrange points that a geocentric epicyclic model falls apart.
Where we run into trouble is by assigning too much credence (or too little skepticism) for that which has not been proven yet. This can be counter-productive as it may stifle research into other areas (in this case gravity). When we take the "best current theory" and deride skeptics of it to the point that it discourages other areas of investigation, that's a bug, not a feature.
Our current understanding of gravity is woefully inadequate, as shown by our inability to reproducibly measure the gravitational constant as well as we should be able to with current technology. The flyby anomaly is another example where DM does not help. I hope that the current popularity of DM does not stifle research into gravity.