[tobmlt]

>>> I suspect that we could have much richer conceptual tools for thinking about the physical world actually around us if only more resources went into looking at it

What I hear in this statement is more towards the domains of research engineering as opposed to theoretical physics. Sand piles are of course the bridge between the two ;)

[whatshisface]

>Sand piles are of course the bridge between the two ;)

Bridges are an engineering topic, most coastal areas lie on sedimentary rocks, and wormholes, a theoretical physics topic, are also called "Einstein–Rosen bridges."

In other words, while bridges are bridges between sand piles and sand piles, sand piles are bridges between bridges and bridges.

[tobmlt]

Yes. You took the entropy right out of my mouth.

[abeppu]

I was thinking more along the lines of complex system research, self-organizing criticality etc. E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abelian_sandpile_model

This can be a scientific rather than an engineering discipline, insofar as it's concerned with understanding the behavior of systems, rather than creating a solution which makes a system behave according to our wishes.

We have a limited understanding of "order" or patterns arising out of systems with many aggregating interactions, and often focusing on relatively idealized and isolated systems.