Some observers of contemporary society have made the claim that scientific knowledge generated in the laboratory as well as through experimental methods is increasingly being extended to the general public. In this essay we review this stream of thought linking it to the origins of the modern notion of experiment. This historical journey is undertaken to demonstrate that the field of science policy can be enriched with such a perspective of real-world experimentation as it not only improves our understanding of the character of science in its social context but also its future limitations to knowledge production. The paper begins to discuss Francis Bacon's idea of experimenting as essential to the practice of modern science, continues with works from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Justus von Liebig, and concluding with 20th-century thinkers and activists, like Jane Addams and Robert E. Park, as well as recent ideas on social experimentation. We finally argue that this type of experimentation can be associated with recursive learning processes that have the potential to merge to a better understanding of scientific research as well as the future of science in the public.