bigjeff5 comments on Hand vs. Fingers - Less Wrong
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Are not these models simply abstractions of physics? That is, simply higher levels of the same systems that physics describes? We know chemistry conforms to physics, and we know biology conforms to chemistry, does biology somehow not conform to physics?
Do we not know this? I thought we did.
The high level models are certainly more practical for their given applications than attempting to work the whole thing out from the movement of quarks, but they are certainly not more accurate. It's the difference between using a globe to find Australia (high level map), and a world atlas to find a road in Sydney (lower level map). It's a lot easier to find Australia on a globe than it is in an atlas, but that does not mean you cannot use the atlas to do so, and it certainly doesn't make the globe more accurate than the atlas, for you'll never find that particular road on a globe. Better for the task, perhaps, but only because you do not need the level of detail the lower level map provides.