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Gavin comments on Mathematical simplicity bias and exponential functions - Less Wrong
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My use of the world "almanac" was more of a reference to the breadth of the area covered by biology, rather than a comment on the difficulty or content of the information.
It's funny that you mention predictive modeling--one of the main functions of an Almanac is to provide predictions based on models.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almanac: "Modern almanacs include a comprehensive presentation of statistical and descriptive data covering the entire world. Contents also include discussions of topical developments and a summary of recent historical events."
Yes, I noticed that I was still nevertheless describing biology as an almanac, as a library of information (predictions) that we will feel like we own because we can generate it. I suppose the best way to say what I was trying to say is that I hope that when we have a better understanding of biology, the term "almanac" won't seem pejorative, but the legitimate way of understanding something that has large numbers of similar interacting components.