I don't believe he's trying to bamboozle anyone.
Maybe himself.
My read is he's 26 or 27, clearly intelligent, intensely curious, and caught up in the enthusiasm of believing that if you understand enough of the mechanisms, you can predict and manage the system.
But that's my oen bias. I was that kid at 27.
I wouldn't want to dissuade him from investigating. He's clearly got a lot of intellectual horsepower and potential. I just dont think he has yet encountered the point where mechanistic understanding runs headlong into system-level complexity.
Newton couldn't solve the three-body problem. He's essentially trying to solve a 27-body problem.
It's precisely why I find it fascinating, encouraging, and have faith in the next generation. The invincibility of youth, pointed in a direction that could generate real gaines. He understands the trees exceptionally well,
And the resiliency of youth will survive a lot of punishment.
That combination is how leaps in progress are made. Despite the asymmetry involved, we write history books about the pioneers who survived.