Debate: could exponential compute replace wet-lab experiments in biology?
cjmaddison · x · 2026-10-26
A debate on whether exponential compute could eliminate the need for biological experiments. @MiraMira argues that in principle, with exponential compute you could simulate biology exactly — experiments are just a compute-saving mechanism from a costlier era, and AlphaFold shows real systems aren't irreducibly exponential. Reblogger Olivia HelenS counters that simulations need starting values: we can't even gather near-complete data on the current state of a single cell, making such simulation literally impossible today. A crisp split between the 'compute solves it' and 'data is the bottleneck' camps in AI for Science.
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