
Why physicists like models, and why biologists should - solipsist
http://longnow.org/essays/why-physicists-models-and-why-biologists-should/
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szany
Note this is actually from 1993. I wonder how things have changed since then.

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Mz
I am operating on about 5 hours of very broken up sleep and am generally
fried. But this is exactly what I want to do: Create "predictive" biological
models with a real world, specific (teaching) purpose. But what I have been
thinking recently is that there is a "space" between the basic physiological
"rules" of the body and the world around us and that "space" is found in the
mind -- that we make countless small choices based on enormous amounts of
data/models/whatnot in our heads which bias us towards recreating the outcomes
we expect (for example: the entire CF community is routinely told by doctors
"people like you don't get well" and "it's the normal progression of CF, there
is nothing you can really do about it" and the like --and then they repeat
these memes to each other, further reinforcing it and further discouraging
people from making any real effort to defy those expectations).

So I have been pondering how one would lay that out as a model, because it is
not as simple as "my body has X nutritional deficiency so I crave foods high
in X, I eat said foods and then get somewhat better". It is more like "my body
has X nutritional deficiency so I crave foods high in X, I run those cravings
through my mental filter and in many cases I decide there is something
inherently bad about craving them and then I go to great lengths to defeat
this built-in self-guiding system, thus not allowing myself to get better,
which leads to more cravings and more guilt and more stringent attempts to
'exercise self control'...and round and round we go".

Anyway, it is likely of no use to the forum for me to attempt to think out
loud on the topic (especially while fried). But I think it is of use to me.

Peace.

