Also, what you suggest is not enough to suspect that Y is needed in the first place. This is an assumption that has to be made based on something. In your model, it seems that in some rats even small “doses” of X in the experiment you suggest in the beginning will sometimes coincide with purple coloration. Doesn’t the experiment seem the more straightforward way?
As to the, uh, real systems, I agree that to many whys remain unnoticed, and observation should play a bigger role. That is a curse of a surveyor—you always wonder what you would have found if only you went just a hundred meters further...
Right, we need to use experiments to figure out that Y is needed in the first place. That’s the “figuring out the structure” part—figuring out what the relevant gears are and how they fit together.
Now, experiments also inherently involve some kind of observation. You make a change, then observe the effect of that change. In some cases, the observation built into the experiment may be enough to figure out the system’s state—that’s what happens in your small doses idea. But this is a very indirect (and likely error-prone) way of figuring out that Y is high in our rat strain.
Also, what you suggest is not enough to suspect that Y is needed in the first place. This is an assumption that has to be made based on something. In your model, it seems that in some rats even small “doses” of X in the experiment you suggest in the beginning will sometimes coincide with purple coloration. Doesn’t the experiment seem the more straightforward way?
As to the, uh, real systems, I agree that to many whys remain unnoticed, and observation should play a bigger role. That is a curse of a surveyor—you always wonder what you would have found if only you went just a hundred meters further...
Right, we need to use experiments to figure out that Y is needed in the first place. That’s the “figuring out the structure” part—figuring out what the relevant gears are and how they fit together.
Now, experiments also inherently involve some kind of observation. You make a change, then observe the effect of that change. In some cases, the observation built into the experiment may be enough to figure out the system’s state—that’s what happens in your small doses idea. But this is a very indirect (and likely error-prone) way of figuring out that Y is high in our rat strain.