Template:M tldr design Nomological machine

A nomological machine is a theoretical model designed to consistently generate the regularities represented by scientific laws — it’s like the theoretical map of an infinitely detailed territory — in the real world, objects never quite behave as the machine predicts because the conditions aren’t quite right — we put this down to our lack of tools or accuracy of information — contrast these with “analogical machines”, where we try to force the real world to generate the results predicted by a scientific or mathematical theory — such as rolling dice or flipping coins to generate random outcomes — which is like configuring the territory to be identical to the map — “map” and “territory” are an immutable dualism