[r9etb]

Contemporary science seems to be taking the position that the "whole system" is simply an additive "piling up of its parts." Thus, if you get down into the weeds, and study the parts, you can figure out what the whole is. Stochastic methods help us do this.

If that truly is the position of contemporary science, it's rather uncomfortably reminiscent of the folks in the late 19th century, who felt that science had reached its perfection, and that the rest was just a compilation of results.... (I can't recall which big-name scientist made the claim.)

[betty boop]

If that truly is the position of contemporary science, it's rather uncomfortably reminiscent of the folks in the late 19th century, who felt that science had reached its perfection, and that the rest was just a compilation of results....

Right. And then along came the great physicists Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrodinger, et al., who blew that assumption to smithereens....

Not to mention the work of the great mathematician, Kurt Gödel....

It's been said that biology is the youngest science. (Astronomy being the oldest.) If that's true, it may yet have a good deal of growing up to do....

Thanks so much for writing, r9etb!