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Re: [ontolog-forum] Disaster Management ontology BOF in Delft

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Kathryn Blackmond Laskey <klaskey@xxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2007 14:19:55 -0400
Message-id: <p06110444c2909e305e8f@[172.16.14.22]>
>  > It is impossible to have a perfect model of any physical system
>>  that takes less space and matter than the system itself.
>
>Not a perfect material model of a material system.
>
>>  Any description of a physical system that gets down to the atomic
>>  level would require more atoms to record it than there are atoms
>>  in the system.
>
>I proposed a similar argument a few weeks ago on this forum.
>One difference:  I can imagine a perfect model of a system, using just
>exactly the same amount of matter and space as that system occupies.
>That we can't make such models is another issue.    (01)

A perfect predictive model of a probabilistic data generating process 
is possible, if we understand perfect in the sense of accurately 
forecasting probabilities in cases where forecasting actual values is 
unachievable. It is possible that such a model is much smaller than 
the actual system.  We have such a system, to accuracy 10^-12 or so, 
for well-controlled microscopic physical systems.  It's called 
quantum theory.    (02)

K    (03)

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