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What Constitutes a Useful Theory Result

What Constitutes a Useful Theory Result. Randall Berry Northwestern University. Random thought. “What constitutes a useless theory result” might be a more interesting panel. Useful theory?. Some possible answers: Provide understanding of existing systems

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What Constitutes a Useful Theory Result

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  1. What Constitutes a Useful Theory Result Randall Berry Northwestern University

  2. Random thought • “What constitutes a useless theory result” might be a more interesting panel..

  3. Useful theory? Some possible answers: • Provide understanding of existing systems • performance analysis, parameter trade-offs.... • Simplify our understanding of existing knowledge • reduce the body of knowledge. • Suggests new solution to known problem. • Suggests new problems. • Provides fundamental limits • "Capacities," benchmarks. • Provides new "insight“ • changes intuition

  4. Time-scales • Usefulness may occur on different time-scales. • Both in terms of usefulness to practice and theory. • Long time-scale usefulness not always apparent. • Depends on technology trends, new applications, etc.

  5. Models • All theory based on simplified models. • Models are more important than math • Here I include metrics as part of models. • Maybe, right question is “What is a useful model”? • “know it when you see it..” • Corollary: any useful theory is based on models that are unrealistic to some degree. • “stylized models” attempt to isolate specific effects. • “known unknowns” better than “unknown unknowns” • But this should not be an excuse to work on any unrealistic models. • Process of evolving/refining models is critical. • This is where interplay between theory/practice/experiments is essential.

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