Stanislaw Lem wrote a short story about this. (I don’t remember its name.)
In the story, English detectives are trying to solve a series of cases where bodies are stolen from morgues and are later discovered abandoned at some distance. There are no further useful clues.
They bring in a scientist, who determines that there is a simple mathematical relationship that relates the times and locations of these incidents. He can predict the next incident. And he says, therefore, that he has “solved” or “explained” the mystery. When asked what actually happens—how the bodies are moved, and why—he simply doesn’t care: perhaps, he suggests, the dead bodies move by themselves—but the important thing, the original question, has been answered. If someone doesn’t understand that a simple equation that makes predictions is a complete answer to a question, that someone simply doesn’t understand science!
Lem does not, of course, intend to give this as his own opinion. The story never answers the “real” mystery of how or why the bodies move; the equation happens to predict that the sequence will soon end anyway.
Stanislaw Lem wrote a short story about this. (I don’t remember its name.)
In the story, English detectives are trying to solve a series of cases where bodies are stolen from morgues and are later discovered abandoned at some distance. There are no further useful clues.
They bring in a scientist, who determines that there is a simple mathematical relationship that relates the times and locations of these incidents. He can predict the next incident. And he says, therefore, that he has “solved” or “explained” the mystery. When asked what actually happens—how the bodies are moved, and why—he simply doesn’t care: perhaps, he suggests, the dead bodies move by themselves—but the important thing, the original question, has been answered. If someone doesn’t understand that a simple equation that makes predictions is a complete answer to a question, that someone simply doesn’t understand science!
Lem does not, of course, intend to give this as his own opinion. The story never answers the “real” mystery of how or why the bodies move; the equation happens to predict that the sequence will soon end anyway.
Amusingly, I read this story, but completely forgot about it. The example here is perfect. Probably I should re-read it.
For those interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Investigation