From: Jeff Davis (jdavis@socketscience.com)
Date: Wed Feb 16 2000 - 13:56:52 MST
Friends,
On, Wed, 16 Feb 2000 13:07:13 +1100,
Damien Broderick <d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au> wrote:
>At 03:52 PM 15/02/00 -0500, John K Clark wrote:
>
>>Gravity is nothing but Space -Time curvature. If you place a canon ball on
>>a rubber sheet the sheet will be distorted but that doesn't prove something
>>must come out of the ball to bend the rubber.
>
>Nicely put, but I've always detested that model/image.
For many years I've puzzled over a certain substantially-less-than-optimal
situation related to the use of models--schematic descriptions of system,
theory, or phenomenon that assemble the known or inferred properties, and
that are used as a study aid--in the learning process. Why is there no
formal and pointed warning of the inherent lack of fidelity between model
and real object. "The map is not the territory." Some loss of focused
inquiry, and the discovery born of it, is likely when the student is not
told up front: "This model, while useful, is grossly impoverished in
comparision to the rich detail of reality. Never forget that. When
viewing a model, retain a healthy skepticism and a diligent
inquisitiveness: what is there about the nature of the model that is
INHERENTLY incapable of congruence with that which it seeks to model; and,
of course, look for factual errors--how is the model, well, simply wrong?;
and look for the
as-yet-undiscovered--what is missing?"
Could such an approach to the use of models provide an abrupt improvement
in the sophistication of inquisitiveness and understanding? Could a
pointed effort to warn about the limitations inherent in the use of models
achieve the dual benefit of avoiding an unwarranted confidence and the
complacency it fosters, while focusing and reinforcing the essential spirit
of inquiry?
(Insert ribald little comment about hot, sweaty supermodels, thus diverting
productive rational thought into a churning, libido-driven synaptic
turmoil; provoking a massive waste of pantiflops of wasted bandwith in
response; and bringing about the downfall--well, maybe just the temporary
halt--of western civilization. How rude and unextropic that would be. I'd
better not do it.)
Best, Jeff Davis
"Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
Ray Charles
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