sarbajit roy wrote circa 10-03-30 12:15 PM: > > Derek Gatherer wrote: >> "If Darwinian reductionism really does transcend the old >> reductionist-holist dichotomy, systems biology would be the ideal >> place to demonstrate it. Likewise, we are now in a position to test >> Rosen’s theories about noncomputable network structures, and to search >> for real biological examples of them. Just as experimental programmes >> were essential to the victories of mechanism in the 1910s and >> neo-Darwinism in the 1930s, only those theories that immediately >> suggest relatively easy experiments will be winners."
That remark about being in a position to test Rosen's theories seems a bit optimistic to me. > Biological systems can be treated holistically, or empirically or > reductionistically - the "dichotomy" is superficial. I'm not so sure it's superficial. I would agree that there are ways to mix and move between them; but whether the "treatment" is superficial or not depends quite a bit on the practical details of that treatment. After all, science is about what we _do_, not what we think we know. > Unfortunately, > in my view, and apparently in Rosen's too - the modern trend towards > reductionism in (say) biology has resulted in an explosion of > information / data (masquerading as science) generated from "easy > experiments" which focus on the.perceivable (light matter) and > ignores the dark matter (or vitalism) which cannot be fully detected > by us as yet. It sounds like you're saying that the explosion in info/data is not scientifically useful. If that's what you're saying, I disagree. Just like anything else, I think science is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. (Of course, maybe I think that because I'm a zombie devoid of inspirational thought. ;-) All that info/data may not seem useful, yet; but as long as we can keep track of it (which is easier said than done), we'll eventually gain the insight to use it. There's a great tradition of observationalists just sitting around logging observations with little inspiration to justify all the logging. In many ways, these efforts are more important than that which provides the inspiration. Anyone can "see" the picture when it's all already laid out in front of them. [grin] It takes serious commitment to drag oneself to the lab every day and log measurements with little to no long-term vision! -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
