This line of think about knowledge and practice fundamentally renders any scientist working at the bleeding edge pre-scientific? Like, we have no great understanding of how cracks open in rock (not at the level of detail and certainty demanded here), so all seismology is pre-scientific? 😐

We have no way of knowing how much energy is released during an earthquake (an unrecoverable amount of energy goes into friction), so earthquake source properties are pre-scientific? (The grad student I know working on with might say, "yes" 🙂)