I think there is a hard limit to what we know and what we can assume to know based of this point and in logic by the Münchhausen trilemma. It's interesting to think of the source of sense data as persistent or consistent when it could just be that our sense organs reduce varied data into persistent experience.
When we look at a tree, it could very well be that the source of the tree is very much like the tree we experience, but it could also be wildly different. When we see a tree in a video game, we know there is no real source tree just like it, just ones and zeroes. I disagree that science fixes this problem. Tools are still just measuring the physical world. For example, if you used a tool to measure some aspect of the tree, you are still measuring the representation of the tree in this world. If I use the video game analogy again, my point is that you wouldn't be able to see true underlying 'source code' of the game tree by looking at it in the game.
I agree certain knowledge may be unattainable, but I don’t care. Useful effective knowledge that helps me achieve my goals in life will do just fine. As long as my mental model of the tree is accurate and useful enough for me to chop it down and make a table out of it, I’m good.
I don’t expect any description to accord perfectly with the reality of the object it refers to. It’s just a description, which may be more or less accurate or useful. Science, and investigation in general, is a way to test and improve such descriptions.
When we look at a tree, it could very well be that the source of the tree is very much like the tree we experience, but it could also be wildly different. When we see a tree in a video game, we know there is no real source tree just like it, just ones and zeroes. I disagree that science fixes this problem. Tools are still just measuring the physical world. For example, if you used a tool to measure some aspect of the tree, you are still measuring the representation of the tree in this world. If I use the video game analogy again, my point is that you wouldn't be able to see true underlying 'source code' of the game tree by looking at it in the game.