Today in Uncertainty Wednesday we are continuing to look at what limits exist on explanations. If you are just coming into this series now, you will definitely want to start all the way back with the framework which sets out the relationship between reality, observations and explanations. I introduced explanations as abstracted relational stories about reality. These generally can be formalized (at least over time) as a set of mathematical equations or other logical expressions. This mathemat...

Now that I have, ahem, explained my take on explanations, Uncertainty Wednesday can move on to examine what limits them. Again, as a reminder, the whole point here is that limits to explanations and to observations are what results in uncertainty (we will soon also talk about whether there is anything such as inherent randomness in underlying reality). The fundamental limit on explanations is the same thing that gives them power in the first place: they are abstractions, meaning they are more...

Now that Uncertainty Wednesday has covered the various ways in which our ability to observe reality are limited, we will look at limitations on explanations. Again for those readers just starting this series, the basic framework has uncertainty resulting from limits on observations and explanations of reality. Now today’s post isn’t titled “Limits on Explanations” but just “Explanations.” The reason for that is that I think I need to first explain what an explanation is (in retrospect I shoul...

Understanding uncertainty, and even more so explaining it, is hard is because it requires a foundational framework — the reason that most explanations feel isolated is that they avoid this initial step. Today’s Uncertainty Wednesday post is my first cut at presenting the framework, so YMMV. I have found on other difficult topics, such as those covered in my book, it has taken me years of writing and thinking to achieve even moderate clarity. With that caveat in place, here we go. The framewor...