I think the link given by
Chris Hillman serves to make the point clearly:
Quote:
|
Overall, the foundation of the argument for a replacement for science is correct: the data cloud is changing science, and leaving us in many cases with a Google-level understanding of the connections between things. Where Anderson stumbles is in his conclusions about what this means for science. The fact is that we couldn't have even reached this Google-level understanding without the models and mechanisms that he suggests are doomed to irrelevance. But, more importantly, nobody, including Anderson himself if he had thought about it, should be happy with stopping at this level of understanding of the natural world
|
There is a point to be made however regarding how far we think the models and mechanisms can actually give an understanding of the natural world. This is perhaps more relevant to physics where there does seem to be a level of opinion that the fundamental underlying reality is there to be explored even though the experimental nature of quantum mechanics infers the existence of a mind independent reality that cannot be accessed directly (Re: Bernard d'Espagnat - "Veiled Reality"). So we may have to accept that the absolute underlying reality of nature (as "something" out there existing independently of us) can never be explained and understood by models, but rather the models are but a human representation of this inaccessible mind independent reality. I see nothing negative about this for the models are powerful predictive tools and serve very practical purposes.
If we considered (as I think will be the case in the very distant future) that science may become more and more directed to exploring the nature of this human representation of the absolute rather than trying to understand the ultimate underlying reality, who knows what kind of enquiry will be needed then - maybe patterns buried in vast amounts of data will be one way forward. But for the largely forceable future models are going to be needed as the only real practical way we can improve our knowledge and make efficient practical sense of our entwined interaction with absolute reality rather than a misconstrued notion that they will explain the secrets of the absolute.