Detail vs whole picture
One of the challenges of scientific inquiry is knowing when to step back—and how far back to step—and when to move in close. In some contexts, approximation brings clarity; in others it leads to oversimplification. A raft of complications sometimes points to true complexity and sometimes just clutters up the picture.
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Model myopia
- We may prefer elegant, mathematically neat models
- But they might just be the ones that flatter our current intellect and tools
- We shouldn’t assume that complex phenomena are improbable simply because they’re difficult for us to explain
Fertile scientific models are always seductive, but one should occasionally ask whether the model is fertile because it captures some deep truths about the universe or because it was constructed with so many tunable variables that you can explain anything at all. Have we been sufficiently clever today, or are we missing a tool that will be invented or discovered tomorrow?
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The English physicist Dennis Sciama knew this dilemma well when he noted:
Since we find it difficult to make a suitable model of a certain type, Nature must find it difficult too. This argument neglects the possibility that Nature may be cleverer than we are. It even neglects the possibility that we may be cleverer to-morrow than we are to-day. - ML Bias–Variance Tradeoff
- Overfitting training data (tweaked for observations)
- Bad generalization (not learning anything useful)
Our Perception is very limited
- Leverage tools to complement our senses to explore the world
the quote that opens this chapter, while poignant and poetic, should have instead been: Equipped with our five senses, along with telescopes and microscopes and mass spectrometers and seismographs and magnetometers and particle accelerators and detectors across the electromagnetic spectrum, we explore the universe around us and call the adventure science.
Link to originalModern Physics impresses us particularly with the truth of the old doctrine which teaches that there are realities existing apart from our sense-perceptions,
Link to original - Rely only on senses
Link to originalScience expands beyond our direct senses, leaving less and less space for the "supernatural".