If ever there was a thread that needed to die it was this one, but...
What's the modern medical explanation of why sugar pills often work better than the drugs they are put up against in trials? Imagine if the latest drug was marketed as 'almost as effective as the placebo', which would mean it was more effective than some drugs that do get marketed (o.k., maybe I'm exaggerating).
I think your account of NON-applied science works for me, but we live in a constructed world of technology. Sure, all that inter-connected technology can't actually violate the laws of nature, but never, ever confuse those laws with the ones we think we know, whether through astrology or quantum physics.
Geniuses are of at least two types: those that realize no human expressions of those laws are ever 100% accurate of reality and those that can somehow juggle intuitively incomprehensibly complex informatin to build a better mousetrap, etc.
Charles Jannuzi
PS: try Chinese cinnamon (kanzou)for stomach upset next time and you'll see, theories be damned, it works. Which means...Chinese medical theory is about as valid as the sort that prevails in western hospitals now.