I hate doing this... but what has changed on HN such that a comment like this is downvoted so soon after it's been posted? Sources are present, the tone is not

I hate doing this... but what has changed on HN such that a comment like this is downvoted so soon after it's been posted? Sources are present, the tone is not hostile. There may be valid disagreements or gaps somewhere here, but the typical HN response in the past was to explore that via further discussion. That said, it really does seem like the term "reductionism" is overloaded. Perhaps it would have been more clear if the author had specifically referred to the concept of Scientism, which is related to a specific problem with excessive or mis-applied reductionism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism > The term scientism is also used by historians, philosophers, and cultural critics to highlight the possible dangers of lapses towards excessive reductionism in all fields of human knowledge I believe in that context, the original article and content make more sense. Personally, as a fan of David Deutsch's "Beginning of Infinity", I see absolutely no conflict between acknowledging both that scientism is harmful and that many systems can be reduced to elegant, simple definitions that are incredibly useful to understand.