There is only one perfect theory of reality—the theory that is reality … a good theory is by necessity a good model.
This doesn’t seem right. A good model necessarily leaves things out; if you didn’t need to leave out some details, then you’d use the object itself, not a model of it. But if a good theory is necessarily a good model, then a good theory also necessarily leaves something out. But then the theory can’t be reality, since reality can’t leave any of itself out of itself.
This doesn’t seem right. A good model necessarily leaves things out; if you didn’t need to leave out some details, then you’d use the object itself, not a model of it.
Unless it was more expensive to build the object than to build the model. Or if the design process required information in the model that is not obvious in the object.
But the true answer is “I meant ‘good’ in the sense of accurate to reality, not in the sense of ‘computationally tractable’.”
This doesn’t seem right. A good model necessarily leaves things out; if you didn’t need to leave out some details, then you’d use the object itself, not a model of it. But if a good theory is necessarily a good model, then a good theory also necessarily leaves something out. But then the theory can’t be reality, since reality can’t leave any of itself out of itself.
Unless it was more expensive to build the object than to build the model. Or if the design process required information in the model that is not obvious in the object.
But the true answer is “I meant ‘good’ in the sense of accurate to reality, not in the sense of ‘computationally tractable’.”