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> OK so we know the answer to this question is 4, let's check our new software against that.

> [software returns 4.7]

> Oh my GOD, it's discovered new physics!



Good summary. There's no end to the kind of delusion some AI proponents will cling too. In a few days they'll say this is another proof we live in a simulation!


The new physics is not in the 4.7 but that in that the model's third and fourth variables seem to be new, compared to the known models.


They seem to be uncorrelated with real-world physics. Whether they are "new" is anybody's guess. They're variables identified in a virtual environment, rather than the real world so there's very little chance they correspond to something in the real world, let alone physics, much less "new physics".


I saw it commented somewhere that epicycles (of astronomical fame) are essentially additional terms in a Fourier series.

I suppose anything nonlinear could invite multiple terms incidental to a particular local fit.


At least it wasn't 42




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