/sci/ - Science & Math » Thread #12182197

167KiB, 1280x936, opo9919k.jpg

View Same Google iqdb SauceNAO

All models are wrong but some are more useful.

Anonymous Thu 01 Oct 15:24:27 2020 No.12182197 View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>12182255 >>12182397 >>12182595 >>12182635 >>12183862

I remember hearing this phrase in college and thinking it was interesting. Does it have truth or is it just bullshit?

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 01 Oct 2020 15:41:45 No.12182230 Report

Quoted By: >>12182249

Yes, nothing that we model behaves 'literally' like any model governs. All models are just mappings from some man-made construction to some real (or otherwise imagined) system it is trying to describe. Things don't literally operate on equations (as far as we know) we just have some equations we can use to describe phenomena.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 01 Oct 2020 15:47:11 No.12182249 Report

Quoted By:

>>12182230
An more literal example would be something like machine learning. We can create ML models that can predict with great accuracy and precision the behavior of certain systems, but the ML model is clearly 'wrong' in that it doesn't fundamentally describe how the system operates. It is 'useful' in that we can still predict and control systems using the model despite it not truly reflecting the underlying system.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 01 Oct 2020 15:48:02 No.12182255 Report

Quoted By:

>>12182197
Yes, the map is not the territory.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 01 Oct 2020 16:24:24 No.12182397 Report

Quoted By:

>>12182197
Yes I think the value of a model, and all knowledge really, is to better predict the future.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 01 Oct 2020 17:24:00 No.12182595 Report

Quoted By:

>>12182197
I'd say it's rational cynicism.
Every models are false because finding the true one amount to be omniscient. Since we simply don't understand everything, every model is by definition only an approximation of reality.

>Some are more useful
can be seen as more cynicism, recognizing that a model is only useful depending of context, plenty of industries/laboratory will use models that are useful for their objectives, while other model, while still important, will not be interesting as many people, even if they were very good at explaining phenomena.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 01 Oct 2020 17:36:17 No.12182635 Report

Quoted By:

>>12182197
Phrase unironically came from an electrical engineer whose field /sci fags love to hate. You'd think sci fags would understand that engineers work by physically verifying models all through their career, but what would a sci fag know?

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 01 Oct 2020 23:30:54 No.12183862 Report

Quoted By:

>>12182197
It is the only truth. The reason for dogmatic scientism today is because people who don't go on to do science degrees (and even plenty of people who do), and only have a high school education of science topics, fundamentally do not understand what science is.
It's nothing but model building. For fuck's sake, the Standard Model is *literally* called that. And yet people take these results and treat them as if there exists a "table of scientific theories" floating somewhere out in the universe, which describes the standard model or what have you on page 134,682.
Science doesn't find objective truths of the universe. It doesn't document "the fabric of reality". It's a collection of models which predict natural phenomena up to some user-specified target accuracy within the comtext of a particular, limited, range of parameters and conditions.
Nothing more.

Capcode	All Only User Posts Only Moderator Posts Only Admin Posts Only Developer Posts
Show Posts	All Only With Images Only Without Images
Deleted Posts	All Only Deleted Posts Only Non-Deleted Posts
Ghost Posts	All Only Ghost Posts Only Non-Ghost Posts
Post Type	All Only Sticky Threads Only Opening Posts Only Reply Posts
Results	All Grouped By Threads
Order	Latest Posts First Oldest Posts First

Your latest searches