Computers perform many mundane chores in science. These are essential tasks, but they hardly portend a revolutionary change in the way science is done. When Pagels speaks of the computer as a new scientific instrument, he has in mind quite different ways of putting it to work. The idea is not to install a computer in the laboratory but rather to build a new laboratory in the world inside the computer. Consider the problem of figuring out what happens to a large star as it reaches the end of its life and explodes as a supernova.
Theoretical methods are also of limited utility.
This is where the computer comes to the rescue. We can build a model of a supernova, based on those well-understood physical processes, and set it running inside the computer. If the model star explodes the way a real star does, then we can have some confidence that the model is correct. The use of computer simulation in realms such as astrophysics is now well established, and it provokes little controversy. Even those who think simulation is not a very good way to understand a supernova may have to admit that it is the best way available.