Virtual Models

1. Virtual Models English 197 Jennifer Yang

2. Reality Bytes - Casti • To what degree can we employ electronic surrogates for the reality that they represent? • Technology that "enable[s] fans to create the entire National Football League (NFL) inside" their computers has existed for decades • Emergent phenomenon: pattern that "emerges out of the high-level interactions between individual agents" (decision makers, objects, or players)

3. "To build and use electronic versions of worlds like the NFL or the New York Stock Exchange effectively, we have to (a) have several agents interacting with each other and (b) give these agents the ability to learn and modify their strategies as the profess unfolds" (5) • In fantasy football/basketball leagues, in order to keep the simulation relevant and a realistic depiction of reality, the rosters change and the players' statistics will be updated after each game • Must account for gameplay, strategy, and improvisation of players to be perfect replicas • Is an extremely detailed "micro-world" (5) more effective in creating a playable and realistic replication than models that consider more general criteria? • Can a model take on less quantitative criteria and simulate "essence" (Picasso) or other similar qualities? Does this make it less or more of an accurate model? Does it depend on what the audience is looking for?

4. Models • "Whether they are on the micro, meso, or macro scale, models are constructed with the purpose of representing some aspect(s) of reality" (6) • a symbolic representation meant to explain or predict • For planetologists, to create replicas of certain astrological phenomena, "the model consists of the description given to compute the physical properties of the matter forming the gaseous cloud and the interactions of these particles of matter with each other via the laws of physics and (probably) chemistry" (6) • Aggregated (high-level) models: "predict patterns like the final score of a football game not from first principles, like the decisions of individual players and coaches, but from higher-level properties like yards gained passing and rushing by the two teams, their respective number of turnovers...and third-down efficiency…takes into account technological and physiological reasons" (5)

5. Experimental models: “constitute material representations of reality that have either had some real-world features abstracted away (as with a model car or a ship in a bottle) or they have imperfect real-world features replaced by idealized versions" (7) • serve to answer by direct experiment certain types of questions that are impractical in real life • Logical models: model theory, research models in mathematics • Start with a saying or axiom and make logical rationalizations afterward; the model attempts to attach meaning to the rules of theses abstract symbols • Theoretical models: “imagined process invented by the scientists to account for observed phenomena” • Put forth by analogy, another layer of simulation • How does the model measure against reality and to what extent does it match what it is simulating?

6. Standards for Models • 1. Simplicity (compactness) • 2. Clarity • 3. Objectivity • 4. Tractability (cost does not rise over what can be afforded) • Can we trust models to give us accurate information?

7. Questions to Consider • 1. How do virtually simulated worlds relate to their real-world counterparts? • 2. What real-world systems could benefit from these worlds? • Global warming • 3. How can we use these worlds to study the reality it represents? • 4. What types of behaviors can emerge from the interaction of agents in their electronic environment? • 5. What constitutes a good model? • Pablo Picasso made a portrait of Gertrude Stein, and at initially critics said that it was not a good likeness of her, but in later years it was thought to be so