Russ Abbott wrote circa 10-07-17 04:28 PM:
I just ran across this <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mathematics-explanation/>. (Call it the "horizontal force.")
I think this is a categorical error. This measurement bias is distinct from an "entropic force". Again admitting that I'm ignorant and don't really know what I'm talking about, it seems to me that entropic forces are _causal_, at least to some extent.
Imagine a network of arroyos. It may be true that a non-causal description of those arroyos does not specifically identify the "cause" of the flooding of one particular region of land. The "cause" would intuitively be rain and the water that pools in the flooded part.... as well as gravity, climate, microclimate, weather, soil qualities, etc. But the description of the network of arroyos _does_ address some of that cause. Hence, it makes some sense to talk of the density or sparsity of the network when talking of the causes of flooding. The network is, I think, analogous to degrees of freedom on a holographic screen.
In fact, if we are largely ignorant of all the bazillions of causal factors involved, then imputing ontological salience on something like a network of arroyos or an entropic force may well help us design particular hypotheses that then help us discover the other causal factors.
So, we can't just write the whole shebang off as "non-causal". Cause is complex despite our persistent desire to make it simple. Identifying or even analogizing entropic forces to this planar bias (or the diff. eq. description of the spinning tennis racket's phenotype) is suspiciously pat and too easy. My inner skeptic insists that Verlinde and the others that talk about entropic forces really are studying real forces, even if they lack complete, pat, easy answers to any questions we may ask about their target.
-- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
