[SI-LIST] Re: surface roughness
- From: "Stefan Milnor" <stefan.milnor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <colin_warwick@xxxxxxxxxxx>, <scott@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:37:20 -0800
Hi Colin
Thanks for the reference. I took a 10 minute diversion to check it out.
The article concludes as follows:
"This ideal theoretical model cannot probably be achieved.
Partial models,
imperfect as they may be, are the only means developed by
science for under-
standing the universe."
Alas, we usually have to make do with imperfect cat models. But they can
still be useful.
Back to my day job -
Stefan
-----Original Message-----
From: colin_warwick@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:colin_warwick@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 4:02 PM
To: Stefan Milnor; scott@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; twesterh@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [SI-LIST] Re: surface roughness
Hi Stefan,
I believe Rosenblueth and Wiener were attempting to be semi-humorous.
The full context is here:
http://www.csee.wvu.edu/~xinl/papers/role_model.PDF
"We have shown that scientific knowledge consists of a sequence of
abstract
models, preferably formal, occasionally material in nature. We shall now
proceed
to examine the results of carrying model-making to the limit. Consider
first material models. They start by being rough approximations,
surrogates
for the real facts studied. Let the model approach asymptotically the
complexity
of the original situation. It will tend to become identical with that
original system. As a limit it will become that system itself. That is,
in a
specific example, the best material model for a cat is another, or
preferably the
same cat. In other words, should a material model thoroughly realize its
purpose,
the original situation could be grasped in its entirety and a model
would
be unnecessary. Lewis Carroll fully expressed this notion in an episode
in
Sylvie and Bruno, when he showed that the only completely satisfactory
map
to scale of a given country was that country itself."
Best regards,
-- Colin
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