Comment by TuringTest

The philosophical problem of that approach is that it's impossible to assess whether you've arrived to the underlying truth, as you have no way to perceive it directly.

All you have is the different theories, so there's no definitive way to assess their closeness to truth other than by their predictive accuracy. If you don't have the physical capacity to leave the room and observe the world, all you've got is the maps themselves and how well they predict travel times and features found along the way.