Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken G
And although I would agree with the truth of that, I think it does not go far enough-- it tends to support the misconception that models somehow fail us by not being the actual. What fails us is our intelligence; the models serve us (notwithstanding my signature). The point of a model is to simplify, because we don't want the actual, we want something we can understand. That's the whole point of the exercise (which is why Occam's Razor is not a minor element of science, it is the core of science).
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Yes I agree, you have highlighted similar sources of potential confusion previously, such as the phrase "it's just a model" which I admit to having used more than once. It is easy to fall prey to the notion that a model is a poor substitute for the actual when in fact, as you say, the model is the interface between our limited intelligence and the actual - hardly any kind of superficial notion then, in fact more of an essential survival mechanism.