Vaniver comments on Removing Bias From the Definition of Reductionism - Less Wrong

1 Post author: RogerS 27 March 2013 06:06PM

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Comment author: Vaniver 30 March 2013 12:55:28AM 0 points [-]

As for the Naval Gunner, the point is that he would be right in other fields than fundamental physics. In weather forecasting long term forecasts using coarser models are actually more accurate than those using fine meshes, because of the chaotic behaviour at smaller scales.

I don't quite agree here. It's true that chaotic interactions and floating point multiplication errors mean that long-running fine-grained maps are less accurate than long-running coarse-grained maps, but it seems cleaner to consider that a fact about computer science, not meteorology.

Thanks for pointing to the more recent EY post, which I look forward to reading. No time tonight.

I would actually recommend Hands vs. Fingers first if you haven't read it yet. It's shorter and may be more directly relevant to your interests.

Comment author: RogerS 06 April 2013 10:29:04PM 1 point [-]

Re Hands vs. Fingers. What worries me about this is the lack of any attention to the different contexts/purposes of different statements about hands & fingers. I have added a comment to the original post to amplify this.

Comment author: RogerS 01 April 2013 06:07:47PM 1 point [-]

Thanks again.

it seems cleaner to consider that a fact about computer science, not meteorology.

I'd call it a fact about any system whose trajectories diverge at a smaller scale and converge at a larger scale (roughly), but that's a radical view that needs a new discussion some time.

I think I can see a useful way of taking the reductionism question further, but will do more reading first...

Comment author: RogerS 25 July 2013 02:25:51PM 0 points [-]

I mentioned back in April that the point about chaos and computer science needed a proper discussion. It is here.

I also mentioned another way of taking the reductionism question further. I was referring to this.