Complexity and Ignorance

In pursuing the objective to generalize theoretical models we must ask ourselves whether greater detail in formulating the contributing processes is warranted by truncation errors, by sensitivity of the results to detail, by the resulting increase in computational complexity and time, and by ignorance of the way these processes really work.
- Joseph Smagorinsky. "General Circulation Experiments with the Primitive Equations: I. The Basic Experiment." Monthly Weather Review, 91.3 (1963): 99–164.

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