The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete | WIRED
Illustration: Marian Bantjes “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” So proclaimed statistician George Box 30 years ago, and he was right. But what choice did we have? Only models, from cosmological equations to theories of human behavior, seemed to be able to consistently, if imperfectly, explain the world around us. Until now. Today companies […]
Save this story Save this story Illustration: Marian Bantjes "All models are wrong , but some are useful." So proclaimed statistician George Box 30 years ago, and he was right. But what choice did we have? Only models, from cosmological equations to theories of human behavior, seemed to be able to consistently, if imperfectly, explain the world around us. Until now. Today companies like Google, which have grown up in an era of massively abundant data, don't have to settle for wrong models. Indeed, they don't have to settle for models at all. Sixty years ago, digital computers made information
saved by
related reading
- Designing AI for Disruptive Scienceasimov.press
- The machines are fine. I'm worried about us.ergosphere.blog
- Big Data is Deadmotherduck.com
- A Stargate for Data - by willdepue - Will DePuewilldepue.substack.com
- Context Widowsartificialbureaucracy.substack.com
- Beware Overreliance on Theorybriantomasik.com
- Data Humanism - giorgialupigiorgialupi.com
- An irrational constraint is the motivating force in modern scienceaeon.co
- The Limits of Dataissues.org
- There Is No A.I. | The New Yorkernewyorker.com
- We were promised Strong AI, but instead we got metadata analysiscalpaterson.com
- 2012.00174arxiv.org