The language used so far may have seemed too removed from the number-crunching chores of experimental science to be anything else than a whimsical indulgence.
The idea that any system can be said to have its own ontology – its own distinctive way of carving up reality – means that its structure distinguishes between “inputs” and couples these to certain “outputs”.
Ontology rests on the idea that reality is not perfectly uniform – that it has discontinuities. To develop a sense of these “contours”, hierarchy theory provides a crude and attractive account that makes for a good beginning.
“Ontology” is sometimes described as “carving nature at its joints”, reflecting the idea that we are substructures of some evolving fabric – colorless, soundless, and flavorless – that has contours.
