A New Kind of Science Needs a New Scientific Method

Dr. Edgar Altamirano recently wrote a piece on the inertia of the education community, [link]. It seems that teachers will take years to incorporate the rapid changes which are the product of  recent advances in Computer Science. Stephen Wolfram proposed a New Kind of Science, based on Computer Science as well.

 I have written on this blog a proposal to consider Science; Theoretical Physics in particular, as a sophisticated and very successful fitting method, invented by Carl Friedrich Gauss, with his least squares method. There are not fundamental laws, just a method to minimize the difference between data and numerical predictions by computer programs or equations. Those fits are not more fundamental, than the conventional mathematics invented by humans with that stated purpose.

The Scientific Method here proposed has three essential, and different tasks:

1. Measure
2. Calculate
3. Compare 

This is a never ending recursive process.

Digital equipment can nowadays be used for step 2. Thinking, a lot of thinking, goes into what to measure. The mental maps of scientists, for these decisions to measure, are the closest constructs to what we now call Fundamental Laws of Physics.

The purpose of science then, is to get the best fits with the minimum number of calculations.