In 1562 Map-Makers Thought America Was Full of Mermaids, Giants, and Dragons

Re:In 1562 Map-Makers Thought America Was Full of Mermaids, ... by Retric on Thursday December 15, 2016 @09:29PM (#13190606)

Nobody really understands transistors. We can build them and priding how they react, but our explanations are all based on other things we don't actually understand. Granted, this is not a great way of looking at the world as everything has the same limitation, but it's also completely accurate.

TLDR; We can model and predict things, but that does not mean we understand them.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:In 1562 Map-Makers Thought America Was Full of Mermaids, ... by skummetmaelk on Friday December 16, 2016 @05:27AM (#13192288)

>We can build them and priding how they react, but our explanations are all based on other things we don't actually understand.

You can say this about anything. This is science; making models and evaluating their predictive power. The models don't have to capture the underlying "truth", if it even exists.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:In 1562 Map-Makers Thought America Was Full of Mermaids, ... by anigbrowl on Friday December 16, 2016 @01:48AM (#13191553)

That's a good point. The best thing about technology is that it makes experimentation more practical without vast resources, eg the 3d printed magnets I mentioned earlier.

[ Parent | on HN ]