Damien Broderick wrote:
>
> Maybe we can cut to the quick of enormous complex systems... just by using a few
> equations and a few hours, days or even years of supercomputer model processing...
> Eventually our models might be profound and deep enough, and our
> computational shortcuts adequate. Until then, it is entirely plausible that
> the only way to have much confidence about how a biosphere runs is to run a
> biosphere for a few million (or, more generally, billion) years.
This recalls a remark that Alfred North Whitehead (who embraced a holistic
view of reality in his dotage) is alleged to have made about his colleague
Bertrand Russell (a believer in reduction through analysis):
"Bertie says that I am muddle-headed. But I think he is simple-minded."
Jim F.
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