Modified version (responding to Chris): (01)
I hope that we all agree that in major, critical, domains, such as >
medicine or nuclear power generation or big city transport systems a
good strategy for creating useful models is to seek to find out what
the underlying reality is like at the detail and granularity relevant
to our purposes. (02)
BS (03)
At 09:57 AM 6/13/2007, Chris Partridge wrote:
>Barry,
>
>I'd like to believe this is true, but, I am not quite sure it is.
>
>I was at an conference a few years back with some engineers doing the safety
>critical work (including simulation) for the Paris Metro - and what
>intrigued me that there were more concerned that the model of what they were
>going to implement had an easy to check structure than a close match to
>reality. I suppose as they were going to impose this reality, they felt a
>simpler structure was safer.
>
>I agree there is a stronger argument when you are trying to model natural
>structures - but even here I suspect the civil engineers building the
>nuclear power station use Newtonian rather than quantum mechanics.
>
>The engineering question is how useful is to understand the underlying
>reality. And I think we are still waiting for a good argument.
>
>Chris
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-
> > bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Smith, Barry
> > Sent: 13 June 2007 16:39
> > To: [ontolog-forum] ; sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx; Kathryn Blackmond Laskey;
> > [ontolog-forum] ; Conklin, Don
> > Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Two ontologies that are inconsistent but both
> > needed
> >
> > I hope that we all agree that in major, critical, domains, such as
> > medicine or nuclear power generation a good strategy for creating
> > useful models is to seek to find out what the underlying reality is like.
> > BS
> >
> > At 09:18 AM 6/13/2007, Kathryn Blackmond Laskey wrote:
> > >A briefer quote from George Box: "All models are wrong, but some are
> > useful."
> > >
> > >K
> > >
> > >At 9:38 AM -0500 6/13/07, John F. Sowa wrote:
> > > >That is certainly true:
> > > >
> > > >>[KL] For the record, "logically correct solution that yields
> > > >>mathematically precise answers" does not equate with "good." A
> > > >>logically correct, mathematically precise answer can be AWFUL if it
> > > >>is answers the wrong question. An imprecise answer from a system
> > > >>riddled with inconsistency can be WONDERFUL if it is a close enough
> > > >>approximation to the answer to the right question.
> > > >
> > > >A comment that has been attributed to Lord Kelvin:
> > > >
> > > > Better a rough answer to the right question
> > > > than an exact answer to the wrong question.
> > > >
> > > >John Sowa
> > >
> > >
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> (04)
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