I agree with Landon, Sean a very interesting article. I can't accept the premise that "Scientific Method is dead" but, paraphrasing Landon, I believe there are models that are so vast that they can't be tested by experiment (eg the impact of climate change on crop production).
In 2004 I attended a conference that had as its major theme the idea of sensors scattered through the environment as dust to provide data that would (more) precisely model the agriculural and ecological environment and lead to better responses to changes. I was struck at the time that managing this data would be a difficult, almost incomprehensible, task. In pondering this problem I had the idea that location (2D, 3D or 4D as required) provides a unique key for any model element in a database. (No two things can occupy the same location if your coordinate precision is fine enough.) Now that the "Google method" has become spatially enabled maybe they will be able to "move from traditional maps to a massive database of spatial information like the world has moved from print publications to the digital information available on the web" (to quote Landon). Cheers AlanK -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, 3 July 2008 1:02 AM To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Geowanking] Critical Theory In light of the conversation on critical theory vs. positivism I thought folks might find the new Wired cover article interesting: The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-07/pb_theory It is a biased link to post on my part, but interesting reading all the same. The debate in the comments is probably better than the article. In the print edition there are some cool geo visualizations of massive datasets (crop production in Iowa and FAA flight tracking over a day). best, sean FortiusOne Inc, 2200 Wilson Blvd. suite 307 Arlington, VA 22201 cell - 202-321-3914 _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking
