RE: "Are you saying that a major barrier in the rapid advancement of knowledge is that we don’t know how to program a machine to ask the right questions?"

Absolutely. Study the hsitory of the space program and you will see for every answered question we seem to generate another if not multiple questions. No big surprise because this is how science works on Earth as well. Humans can follow up immediately in a matter of minutes or days. Robots have to wait years for the next probe to be designed to answer the specific question raised.

RE: "Having to narrow down the scope of research so a robot can gather data isn’t a major barrier, it’s more an art form. That’s one of the things humans are very good at: figuring out ways that allow robots to perform a specific function."

Sorry no. See above. We do well with limited attempts and resources, but that does not mean limiting ourselves to robots does not handicap our rate of advance.

RE: Gathering data isn’t the whole of research.

No it's not. It's part of a cycle. The longer you streach out that cycle the slower the area of research advances.

Regards,
Mark