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Not a physicist, but at a guess: Occam's Razor, plus the existance of simpler theories which explain our current observations.

by gbrown 8y ago

sixdimensional 8y ago
I think this (Occam's Razor) clearly illustrates the limit of our perception/comprehension though. It is entirely possible that due to our comprehension of the complexity involved with dimensionality, we can be only vaguely aware (if at all) of a more complex system than the one we can perceive/comprehend. I'm reminded of the book Flatland[1]. It is fine to attempt to apply our rubrics, but I am not sure how to quantify the limits of our perception. Perhaps Occam's Razor and current simpler theories give a useful working tool for us to reason within our local known (or perceived/comprehended) universe. The best way I can think of to ask this is, how do we factor in the "unknown unknown"? It is maddening not to be able to. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland
- gbrown 8y ago
  I mean, that's why people do theoretical physics in higher dimensions and then search desperately for ways to test their theories. We can extrapolate with mathematics in infinite ways, but until we can find ways to test things it's hard to do better than "find the simplest explanation that accounts for what you can observe".
christudor 8y ago
Slightly off-topic, but how robust is Occam’s Razor as a principle for judging the likelihood of a theory being true?
- scarejunba 8y ago
  Occam's razor is the search heuristic with bottommost priority. It works well because it's easier to falsify simpler things than more complex things. It's a technique to avoid adding epicycles and not very effective further up from there. If you have other reasons to believe a more complex hypothesis may be likely those should generally override Occam's Razor.
- gbrown 8y ago
  I started typing a reply, but as usual Wikipedia has a better response than I do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor#Justifications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor#Justifications

Not a physicist, but at a guess: Occam's Razor, plus the existance of simpler theories which explain our current observations.

by gbrown 8y ago

Not a physicist, but at a guess: Occam's Razor, plus the existance of simpler theories which explain our current observations.

sixdimensional 8y ago

I think this (Occam's Razor) clearly illustrates the limit of our perception/comprehension though. It is entirely possible that due to our comprehension of the complexity involved with dimensionality, we can be only vaguely aware (if at all) of a more complex system than the one we can perceive/comprehend. I'm reminded of the book Flatland[1]. It is fine to attempt to apply our rubrics, but I am not sure how to quantify the limits of our perception. Perhaps Occam's Razor and current simpler theories give a useful working tool for us to reason within our local known (or perceived/comprehended) universe. The best way I can think of to ask this is, how do we factor in the "unknown unknown"? It is maddening not to be able to. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland

gbrown 8y ago
I mean, that's why people do theoretical physics in higher dimensions and then search desperately for ways to test their theories. We can extrapolate with mathematics in infinite ways, but until we can find ways to test things it's hard to do better than "find the simplest explanation that accounts for what you can observe".

christudor 8y ago

Slightly off-topic, but how robust is Occam’s Razor as a principle for judging the likelihood of a theory being true?

scarejunba 8y ago
Occam's razor is the search heuristic with bottommost priority. It works well because it's easier to falsify simpler things than more complex things. It's a technique to avoid adding epicycles and not very effective further up from there. If you have other reasons to believe a more complex hypothesis may be likely those should generally override Occam's Razor.
gbrown 8y ago
I started typing a reply, but as usual Wikipedia has a better response than I do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor#Justifications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor#Justifications