Re: Category Theory and Rosen - some clarifications (i hope 8-))

[Roger M. Burkhart]

>From Glen's message:

> Sure, simulation is *the* tool; but, it's inadequate.  Scientific
> theory is about compression.  The idea that alife models *must* be
> simulated in order to be studied runs against the grain of any decent
> theorist.  It's as bad as saying, "you won't know whether or not this
> number is computable until your turing machine actually stops."

> [yuck]  Simulation is a stepping stone that we must have to provide
> us with enough data about these systems to abstract to the higher
> formalization.

Well, let's get our yucks where we can.  You seem to be equating
formalization with the compression of theory.  Formalization just
defines a new system that we can talk about with some control over what
went it.  Formalization implies nothing about analyzability; it's just
the way that we define a (more-or-less) deterministic machine so that
we have some artifact of our own to study as opposed to any we might
never have understood in the first place.  The formalized system may
still have no wedge of analyzability that's any better than simulation.
If the system is complex enough, we may still want to just watch it for
a while before having any clue of the planes where we could try to pry
it apart, assuming we're so disposed.  Paul Johnson also raises cases
(e.g., from political science) in which no system other than the
artificial, formalized one may be available.

I agree that we need better formalizations, including "open," expandable
ones that give a better chance of modeling life, thought, and complex
dynamics, but the purpose is not to make them any more generally
analyzable.  A likely outcome is to make them only more contextual and
bound by culture and history, and so perhaps more ultimately interesting
than those that don't even resist a simple compression.

Roger Burkhart



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