Novelists and Reductionists

Some like to focus on the new. They like to invent theories.

Some are adamant about reducing to what has come before. This has worked remarkably well for the core of physics.

These inclinations are not incompatible given some kind of “leveling”, with discipline about connections. Standing on the shoulders of giants and all that.

Much of apparent “novelty” may be reducible to the structured annotation and (re-)configuration of core mechanism. Like how various organisms’ genetic inheritances have been modded over millennia.

Linked Data may be framed as a way to get novelists and reductionists to sit at the table of FAIR together.