Occam's Razor

According to Wikipedia: "Occam's Razor is a principle of parsimony, economy, or succinctness used in problem-solving." I may not be stating it exactly correctly but I have always interpreted this as meaning whenever you are trying to explain something, usually the simplest explanation to fit the facts is the correct one. For example, a man goes out for cigarettes and never comes back. Maybe he got abducted by aliens or maybe he just took off. While he may have been abducted by aliens, it is more likely that he just decided to run away from his responsibilities.

In Rome's Revolution, Occam's Razor is employed on multiple occasions to help Rome and Rei and OMCOM whittle down the facts to the simplest explanation. Here was Rome's take on how Rei's Ark II ended up at Tabit:

     “We do not need to make assumptions. We know exactly three things,” Rome said.
     “OK. Tell me....” Rei offered.
     “One, your ship must have been in this system. The sarcophagus is proof of that.” A blinking red dot appeared right in the middle of the screen.
     “Right. Next?” Rei asked.
     “Two, your ship ended up at Tabit.” The screen zoomed out reducing Tau Ceti to a yellow dot next to the red dot of the sarcophagus. A blinking white dot appeared off to the right.
     “That white dot, that’s Tabit?” Rei asked.
     “Yes,” Rome replied. A faint green line connected the white dot to the yellow one. Some Vuduri numbers appeared along the length of the line. Rome did something then a cloud fuzzed out the region around the yellow and red dots.
     “Finally, this star system has an extraordinary number of extra-solar objects. This is the very region we are in now.”
     “And you’re thinking we hit something?” Rei asked.
     “Or it hit you,” Rome said.
     “Yes. I guess Occam’s Razor says we don’t we need any more than that. We probably got hit as we were approaching, swung around the star and got a gravity boost, like a slingshot, that just happened to send us your way.”

OMCOM also used this principle to deduce that the stars were being consumed by Stareaters:

To OMCOM, this was remarkable. Many possibilities but the same statistically significant solution. OMCOM used a reverse form of Occam’s Razor and assumed this common solution was the correct solution and used it to chart backwards to discover the actual problem. If such a thing were possible, he was astounded. The scenario suggested was statistically impossible using his old style of thinking. Regardless of whether it was correct, OMCOM knew that his logic retraced all permutations back to the same solution making it the only one worth considering.

He also used this principle to deduce that MASAL was still alive and responsible for not only Estar's actions but also multiple other oddities (mandasurte disappearing, etc.).

All in all, Occam's Razor is a very useful way to navigate through life's complexities and make sense of it all.