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That's a great point. All layers are correct, but most won't be useful for a given problem.

If you're thinking about, say, crowd reactions, then you don't want the "meatbag" model. Instead, you need a higher-level psychological model. However, if your problem is "what kind of injuries result from a bomb", then the "meatbag" model is right on.

Thinking of the body as a loose confederation of fundamental particles is fairly useless when trying to decide how much to charge for a product, but it's an excellent model when e.g. figuring out how much radiation a person will absorb from a source.

No layer denies the usefulness or reality of any of the others.




We can agree here. And note that I had no issue with the use of the word meatbag to describe bomb effects.

It was your use of the word "ultimately" that I objected to.


I don't get why. If you keep stripping away the abstractions, that is where you end up.


No, if you keep stripping away the abstractions you end up with quarks.




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