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srean | on: Decision trees – the unreasonable power of nested decision rules
> Times have changed…

This makes me a little concerned -- the use of parameters rich opaque models in Physics.

Ptolemaic system achieved a far better fit of planetary motion (over the Copernican system) because his was a universal approximator. Epicyclic system is a form of Fourier analysis and hence can fit any smooth periodic motion. But the epicycles were not the right thing to use to work out the causal mechanics, in spite of being a better fit empirically.

In Physics we would want to do more than accurate curve fitting.

lokimedes | parent | next
If you sum up experimental physics into one heuristic it is “avoid fooling yourself with assumptions” - I left physics over a decade ago, but I feel confident that physicists still work hard to understand what they observe and don’t let LLMs have all the fun. If there’s one field of science where the scientists are legitimately allowed to go all the way back to basics, it’s elementary particle physics.
srean | root | parent
In general I would agree. I think it holds true at the highest levels.

What worries me is the noticeable uptick of presentations of the sort -- look ma better fit ... deep neural nets. These are mostly by more junior folks, but not necessarily. I have been in the audience in many.

These and the uptick in research proposals funded by providers of infra for such DNNs. I have been in the audience of many.

A charitable read could be that they just want the money and would do the principled thing.

lokimedes | root | parent
Again, said as someone out of the fray, let’s hope it self-corrects. Physics is a very community driven field, and the young must try new things, and be allowed to, it is part of progress. It is when the seniors surrender the standard of quality they carry, we have trouble. And here, indeed, particle physics can be uniquely vulnerable - given the complexity and economics of the research, it is hard to falsify claims made with new methods if the established researchers cave too easily.
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