TTT: A fast heuristic to new theories?

Abstract

Gigerenzer and coauthors have described a remarkably fast and direct way of generating new theories that they term the tools-to-theories heuristic. Call it the TTT heuristic or simply TTT. TTT links established methods to new theories in an intimate way that challenges the traditional distinction of context of discovery and context of justification. It makes heavy use of rhetorical tropes such as metaphor. This chapter places the TTT heuristic in additional historical, philosophical, and scientific contexts, especially informational biology and digital physics, and further explores its strengths and weaknesses in relation to human limitations and scientific realism.