Sounds fascinating. Selma ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Gurstein" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, April 19, 2002 6:38 PM Subject: RE: Privatizing the Public: Whose agenda? At What Cost?
> I haven't been tracking it very closely, but there is an emerging field of > Information Systems studies which is looking at what is being called > Artificial Life. In this there is the designing of artificial organisms > which live only within computers. They have a variety of the > characteristics of real organisms including the capacity to reproduce and so > on. It seems that the most recent development in the field is that the > organisms are given some of the social characteristics of humans and they > are left to see how they organize themselves into communities/societies. > > (Think Tamagouchi and the Sims as primitive examples)... > > MG > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Ed Weick > Sent: April 19, 2002 4:03 PM > To: Selma Singer; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Privatizing the Public: Whose agenda? At What Cost? > > > > Selma Singer: > > > I find the whole idea of using technological tools to help devise better > > social structure, very, very exciting. As long as the techology is seen as > a > > TOOL for human purposes, that is. > > > > Why would it not be possible to feed a computer the kinds of outcomes one > > would want to see and what characteristics the behavior would exhibit and > > have the computer HELP us think about that. I'm not saying the computer > > would necessarily be able to devise those structures but it very well may > be > > able to help us in our thinking about the strategies we would need to > > employ, especially in getting from where we are now to where we might want > > to be. > > > > Computers can be helpful but are limited. The are most helpful where cause > and effect linkages are known, or even known with considerable imprecission. > For example, economists use them to predict the effects of changes in > interest rates, the IPCC has used them to predict the consequences of > climate change, and environmental scientists can use them to determine the > changes in streamflow characterisics and other variables in the case of an > impeded waterway. So some specific cause/effect relationships can be > modelled and predicted, using computers. However, I don't think you can go > beyond that and use computers to predict change in society as a whole or to > somehow model positive social change. It's just too complicated, recursive > and uncertain, and there is often little agreement on the positives and > negatives of change. I'm afraid we'll just have to lurch on with a little > support from the microchip, but not very much. > > Ed Weick > > >
