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July 20, 2005
Models Map Most Monads
Models that work. I often silently criticize computer models of real-world happenings, their occasional usefulness sniped by over-hyped and under-powered accuracy. Indeed, that's the gist of my Strong AI critique. Mr. Hayakawa taught me "don't confuse the map for the territory" while philosophizing about language. And Tufte sent a few zingers at models that actually obfuscate reality instead of opening up a new understanding of it.
But models do have their uses, bringing out features that we cannot access IRL. It gets better when the models allow unconstrained real-time interaction with the data they represent. When you can run those models on your laptops, nerd-bliss arrives.
This morning, Mr. Peter Ryer at Boeing nailed just that with his Desktop Tool Suite of flight model software. Want your engineers in the back of the plane to watch a model of the plane as it flies, feed in real time by thousands of sensors on the plane? Yep. They can even move the camera around the airplane as it maneuvers, see the instruments and the pilot's view, etc.
Recently I’ve read reminders from Elissa and from Andy Crouch: don't assume the model tells the full story.
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Comments
I almost thought you meant that models (as in women with long legs) work. That would have been an entertaining blog.
Posted by: Ellis at July 21, 2005 03:27 PM