Dr.GH
Posts: 2333
Joined: May 2002
|
Great material as always.
| Quote | | "I think that people have a kind of mystical notion about computer models, that if the model is "more complex than I can understand" then it is equivalent to "they modelled the world in all necessary detail inside the computer!!". This is particularly true if someone presents a nice animation as the output. This is not the case. All computer models are gross simplifications, and IMO there is no particular hard-and-fast distinction between a theoretical model where calculations are done with a computer and a computer simulation where there is some attempt to perform a simulation with random inputs and explicit time-steps. It is, to plagiarize from Darwin, a difference of degree, not of kind." |
This is a very good point.
I hope that you will boil this thread down to a reply to Berlinski sent to Commentary, and with either a TD FAQ link, or at least a link to this thread.
Please!
PleasePleasePleasePlease
--------------
"Science is the horse that pulls the cart of philosophy."
L. Susskind, 2004 "SMOLIN VS. SUSSKIND: THE ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE"
|
