If wikis are so great for collaborative problem-solving and knowledge organization and emergent wisdom-making, then how come wikis aren't taking over the world of science?

Actually, they already have — for centuries now. But because the challenges of science tend to be orders of magnitude harder than those addressed in common wikis, the group-mind environments of science are likewise orders of magnitude slower than those of most online communities. The wikis of science are called journals and conference proceedings. The collaborative environments of science are called university departments and professional societies.

Maybe it's like the difference between flicking acorns to bring down a house of cards, and planting acorns to bring down a mountain ...

(cf. ExpertiseAndScience (19 Feb 2001), TenThousandHours (20 Sep 2001), KeyToTheTreasure (23 Apr 2004), ToolsToMakeTheToolsToMake (26 Mar 2005), SeeingNature (19 Jul 2005), ...)

TopicScience - TopicThinking - TopicSociety - 2005-11-10
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(correlates: MiraclesAndWonders, RubensesquePassersBy, HigherLevelLanguage, ...)