Page 90 - Modern Spatiotemporal Geostatistics

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PHYSICAL KNOWLEDGE

"All the measurements in the world are not
the equivalent of a single theorem that produces a
significant advance in our greatest of sciences." C.F. Gauss

From the General to the Specific

Modern spatiotemporal geostatistics is a multidisciplinary affair that involves
knowledge from various sciences, and is not the province of pure a priori
mathematics. The physical knowledge used in the analysis and mapping of
spatiotemporal phenomena may come from a variety of sources. One should in-
clude all kinds of valid knowledge that are available at a given moment and can
be obtained by the competent scientist using a scientific procedure effectively.
In this sense, the availability of physical knowledge is objective. Subjective bias
enters when the scientist fails to use the appropriate procedures leading to the
valid knowledge, even when such procedures are available.
What we know about the physical world depends on us. But it does
not necessarily follow that the way things are in the world depends on us.
Several distinctions can be made between different forms of knowledge and
knowing. One distinction is between knowledge that is obtained by the senses
and knowledge that is obtained by the mind. Another distinction is between
knowledge gained by the direct experience of the knower and knowledge gained
through the experience of others. A knowledge base is a collection of knowledge
sources relevant to the problem at hand to be invoked by a reasoning process
aiming at the solution of the problem. For the purposes of modern geostatistics,
we shall distinguish between two prime knowledge bases:
• The general knowledge base (j (i.e., obtained from physical laws and scien-
tific theories, summary statistics, logical principles, etc.), and

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