Comment by pgroves
14 hours ago
Thinking about this some more, maybe I wasn't considering simulators (aka digital twins), which are supposed to be able to create fairly reliable feedback loops without building things in reality. Eg will this plane design be able to take off? Still, I feel fortunate I only have to write unit tests to get a bit of contact with reality.
Simulations in general are pretty flawed, and AIs will usually find ways to "cheat" the simulation.
It's a very useful tool of course, but not as good as the software situation.