Re: Robert Rosen on "machines and mechanisms"...

["glen e. p. ropella" <***>]

Judith Rosen wrote:
> post a few passages of his own thoughts on these same subjects. The 
> first is from "Life, Itself; A Comprehensive Inquiry Into the Nature, 
> Origin, and Fabrication of Life", pages 202/203:
>
> Robert Rosen wrote:
[...]
> As we have seen, given a natural system N [here, "natural" means 
> actual or real, as opposed to formalisms], we have formalisms F 
> associated with it as models, simply by virtue of Natural Law itself 
> [meaning that appropriate inferential entailment in a model will 
> commute to the corresponding natural system's causal entailment and 
> the model will then accurately predict behaviors of/in the natural 
> system]. We now also have a condition (simulability) that may be 

Hey Judith!

I take issue with the editorial comment: "[meaning that appropriate 
inferential entailment ...]".  [surprise]

Unfortunately, my objection is subtle.  I would reword your editorial 
comment to say something like: "[meaning that appropriate inferential 
entailment in a model is assumed (inferred from Natural Law) to commute 
to the corresponding natural system's causal entailment and the model 
should then accurately predict behaviors of/in the natural system]"

My point being that Natural Law is an assumption on RR's part.  It's a 
part of the foundations of why this indirect study of reality through 
formalisms works.

Anyone who builds alot of models will know that there are alternative 
models, each of which map certain of their inferential structures 
directly to certain phenomena in the referent and others of which map 
different inferential structures to phenomena in the referent.

Which models are appropriate for any given use depends on which 
phenomena are being studied in detail and which phenomena are abstracted 
away in order to limit the extent of the model.

--
glen e. p. ropella              =><=                Hail Eris!
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