[fat_cantor]

None of this works without astrology, since it was the guiding theory behind Brahe and Kepler's measurements. The out-of-sample training data that Newton used for confirmation was comet orbits. Would ML really have created an elegant, closed-form theory about the elliptical shape of orbits and the power-law dependence of the period? Without these insights, there would be no inverse-square law in the first place, and perhaps we would only have an effective theory.

[ElectricalUnion]

I think you're confusing Astronomy (studying celestial objects) with Astrology (divinatory practices related to celestial objects).

Granted, the reason why people did Astronomy was because they believed in Astrology, but it's no longer been the case since a while.

[fat_cantor]

The purpose of Brahe's measurements, and the reason he hired Kepler, was to gather data for astrological predictions. The principles of astrology led them to look for simple, basic principles in a way that a computer would not, unless directly programmed to do so. The astronomical measurements alone were not enough.