STREET DOGS: What is optimal, anyway?
Optimisation is not a new concept but we have to decide what we mean by optimal if we’re going to pursue it
From Sabine Hossenfelder at Edge.org: People don’t like detours. We search for the fastest route, the closest parking spot — we optimise. Incremental modification, followed by evaluation and readjustment, guides us to solutions that maximise a desired criterion. These little series of trial and error are so ingrained we rarely think about them. Optimisation is not a new concept. It’s the scientific variant of Gottfried Leibnitz’s hypothesis that we live in the "best of all possible worlds". But while the idea dates back to the 18th century, it is still the most universal law of nature we know. Modern cosmology and particle physics both work by just specifying exactly in which way our world is "the best". Optimisation also underlies natural selection and free market economies. Our social, political, and economic systems are examples of complex adaptive systems; they are collections of agents who make incremental modifications and react to feedback. We can’t calculate what the systems...
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