The use of cloud computing to assist in the manipulation of vast amounts of data to provide statistically useful correlations is undoubtedly a useful tool in the box, and will prove it's worth in areas of science which are currently hamstrung by data volume and interaction complexity such as climate science and molecular biology. Perhaps it will be useful in analysing data from atom smashers too, and the possibility of devising new types of experiments which could take advantage of the number crunching power of the cloud shouldn't be dismissed. However, it's not going to magically provide an elegant simplified theory adequate to the data all by itself, gifted humans are still better at integration than the fastest biggest computer.


Seems to me that the problem with Occans razor is that using it to trim out conceptual variables at one stage may lead to more complexity at a later stage than you would have had if you'd kept an apparently unecessary and extraneous variable at the earlier stage. The only way to find out is to go back and 'rerun' the development of theory including the dismissed variable to see if it comes into play and assists in finding a simpler solution further down the line. There is an understandable reluctabce to do this when much is already invested in the current model, even when it becomes apparent that an impasse is looming and the difficulties of experiment design and cost increase exponentially.

The most useful tool in the box is the pink squishy stuff and the fact that it can be used differently by everybody. Being able to bring it to bear on conceptual problems from many different angles by many people able to communicate is the human cloud.