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I'm confused by your statement that "Math's not the only modeling medium that can be Unreasonably Effective", because it's not clear to me what the notion of a
by Sniffnoy 14y ago
I'm confused by your statement that "Math's not the only modeling medium that can be Unreasonably Effective", because it's not clear to me what the notion of a "non-mathematical model" means. (That is to say, it's not clear to me that you're even correct in the weaker assertion that "Math's not the only modeling medium.") Can you explain?
- kjhughes 14y agoModeling media besides math: digital electronic circuits, analog electronic circuits, legos, quantum mechanical phenomena, gears, computer simulation, wetware, mythology, clocks, BZ reactions, ...
- Groxx 14y agoMany of which are reducible to math. Though I'm not sure what legos have been "unreasonably effective" at predicting.
- Sniffnoy 14y agoSeveral of those are, in fact, math. (In particular, computer simulation.) The others are mostly phsyical models, which I must admit, I had not thought of. So that yields two; mathematical models (that is to say, formal models) and physical models (that is to say, real-world models). (The line can perhaps be a bit blurry in the case of e.g. digital electronic circuits, but, well, I'm not claiming there's a sharp line.) That leaves "mythology", which I'm not convinced is a proper modeling medium at all.
- lutusp 14y agoBut those are examples of modeling math, with a superficial layer of physical material. Another way to say it is the degree that these are useful models, is the same degree to which they reflect mathematics. With the possible exception of mythology.