Posted by
Joshua Thorp on
Dec 10, 2004; 1:04am
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/But-surely-Professor-Thompson-re-Wolfram-tp519839.html
Maybe this is because it is a "_new_ kind of science" and the proper
methodology is still being worked out. The beginning of science is an
acknowledgment of ignorance. I believe that we need a proper
understanding of how to work with new models and theories in a
constructive, repeatable, predictive, "scientific" manner so that we
can better explore how the world works. This is what the 'hard
sciences' have all been about--but have become increasingly harder as
we embrace more squishy topics.
We are stuck in the local minima of post-modernism and have yet to bust
our way out. Just because there is a problem, and a complicated one
at that, doesn't mean we should throw up our hands and say it is all
useless. It seems to me that this is the essential problem we are
facing in complexity, we know that the world is more complicated than
Newton's laws predict. We fear that there are limits to what can be
known. (Perhaps the end of science would be ignorance of ignorance
itself?) We have the uncertainty principle, we have the
incompleteness theorem from Godel, we all have bounded rationality.
"Survival of the fittest"/evolution is part of the puzzle of life. But
that there is more to life than simple reproduction, consumption and
death is clear. Isn't one of the standard arguments against evolution,
just how mathematically unlikely all of this order in life is? That
we have all of this in such a short time? Where does order come from
if chaos is so easy to achieve? If disorder is the natural course of
systems then where do patterns come from? Etc.
Ultimately the world can be modeled to any precision but will still
remain a model-- will still not be reality. However we should embrace
this not run from it. What can be learned from different levels of
description? Newton's laws certainly have a predictive power, a
descriptive power. They explain the rules by which nature works. And
they are wrong.
Wrong, but an important step in understanding the world. And within
certain parameters (speed, mass, energy, environment, material
composition, margin of error desired, ...) perfectly useful.
Our theories are built of entities and rules. From these we can find
dynamics that are expressive of properties of observed reality. But we
can observe the world and note that beyond certain thresholds of size
or error every theory we have come up with so far has broken down.
This hasn't stopped cosmologists from exploring reality using theory.
I do not see why it should stop anyone honestly trying to understand
the world.
So the criticism that "yeah, that looks right" is well taken. I think
just as observations of the real properties of light and gravitational
fields lead us to say that Newton's work doesn't look right, so too,
we should be willing to embrace where our models do not look right.
And we should work toward using the old scientific method to turn this
"new _kinda_ science" into a true kind of science. We need to be able
to say for what good are these models. For what regimes do these
models give us useful information. How do these models further our
exploration of reality. Where do they reveal our misunderstandings?
This is science. Saying we have answered something-- this should be
suspect, surely. Of course if we didn't allow ourselves a little
false pride how could we get up in the morning?
As a disclaimer I am not really talking about Wolfram's particular work
here as I haven't really looked at it very deeply but I think it is of
a piece of what has been referred to as "Complexity Science". Just
under his own catchy trademark. If some one were to practice a new
kinda science would they have to pay Wolfram for the right?
Just asking,
--Joshua
On Dec 9, 2004, at 9:44 PM, Robert Holmes wrote:
> ?one of the problems with Wolfram-math is it over-privileges the role
> of metaphor. Yes metaphor is important in the development of theories
> (and so are dreams and experience and funding and blind good fortune)
> but it is not a whole load of use in evaluating - and hence ultimately
> accepting or rejecting - those theories.
>
> If I want to see just how good Newton's laws are at describing the
> motion of planetary bodies, I take lots of astronomical measurements
> as accurately as I can and then I compare my predictions with my
> measurements.? What I don't do is look up into the night sky and say
> "yeah, that looks about right". Which - unfortunately - is pretty much
> the extent of confirmation that is sought in much of the 'new'
> science.
>
> Robert
>
> Dr. Robert Holmes
> ?
> PO Box 2862, Santa Fe, NM 87504
> mobile: (505) 310-1735
> web: www.holmesacosta.com
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