cognitive largess (was Re: reductionism)

Posted by Marcus G. Daniels on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Seminal-Papers-in-Complexity-tp524047p524141.html

Phil Henshaw wrote:
> It does confuse that we seem
> to need to look at real systems with simplifying projections that
> look different from each other.    The answer as to which 2D
> projection is the correct one is what seems most confusing.
Glen E. P. Ropella wrote:
> My most heated was with a guy who claimed that model selectors (e.g.
> AIC) that rely on a posited "perfect" or "optimal" model can actually
> help one get at the true generator of whatever data set is being
> examined.  It took a lot of verbage on my part to draw a detailed enough picture for him to understand that the data were taken by a method that
> presumed a model (because all observation requires a model and all
> models require observations).  And the best a selector can do is find
> that occult model by which the data was collected.
Fine, but more models won't help that problem.    The data is the
data.    In contrast, Phil's example would be addressed by AIC.