"In our quest for accurate simulations, are we computing too much and thinking too little?"

The title of this post is a quote from Kerry Emanuel's essay published earlier this year, "The Relevance of Theory for Contemporary Research in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate".  He expresses a concern that numerical models of these phenomena, and attempts to improve their predictive performance by brute force, have supplanted the value of theoretical reasoning in advancing atmospheric and oceanic science.  The need to cope with large data sets and computational methodology has supplanted the study of scientific theory and physics in the curriculum, resulting in an unbalanced focus by both students and researchers, in his view.  He presents the argument more forcefully and eloquently than I can, so DTLR recommends this essay to all its readers.

Reference

K. Emanuel, 2020:  The relevance of theory for contemporary research in atmospheres, oceans, and climate.  AGU Advances, 1 (2), e2019AV000129.