johnswentworth comments on An Undergraduate Reading Of: Macroscopic Prediction by E.T. Jaynes

[johnswentworth]

If any macrophenomenon is found to be reproducible, then it follows that all microscopic details that were not reproduced, must be irrelevant for understanding and predicting it. In particular, all circumstances that were not under the experimenter’s control are very likely not to be reproduced, and therefore are very likely not to be relevant.

I’m having trouble expressing in words just how useful that is. It clarifies a whole range of questions and topics I think about regularly. Thankyou for sharing!