Shoot.  That last one wasn't meant for public consumption.  Sorry for
sounding like such a poopy-head.

On Sat, Aug 29, 2009 at 11:12 AM, Douglas Roberts <[email protected]>wrote:

> Steve,
>
> I confess that I enjoy rubbing their noses in their speculative
> circle-jerks, now and then.
>
> Another topic: do you know Ed MacKerrow?
>
> --Doug
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 29, 2009 at 11:06 AM, Steve Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>  Doug -
>>
>> Suzanne and I just watched Paper Chase (1973) again and were treated to
>> the dry commentary of John Hausman as curmudgeonly professor Kingsfield.
>> Your comment reminded me of the equally dry delivery he gave in a TV
>> commercial several years later for an investment house? where he uttered the
>> line
>>
>>     "We make money the old-fashioned way, we EARN it!"
>>
>> That noted, I would submit that the FRIAM list (and Friday kaffe klatch)
>> *IS* more about speculative discussion than it is about problem solving.  I
>> find there is a delicate distinction between the interesting exploration of
>> ideas through group speculation and well... what I think we all know of as a
>> "circle jerk".  I take this risk every time I let myself get drawn into a
>> thread.
>>
>> - Steve
>>
>> Has anybody just tried to design this application the old-fashioned way;
>> i.e., develop a set of requirements that
>>
>>    - define the interactions between the components of the system,
>>    - identify (clearly, no vagueness allowed) the desired results from
>>    running the simulation,
>>     - identify (clearly, no vagueness allowed) the inputs for the
>>    simulation, and
>>
>> *then* determine what design best fits the application?
>>
>> Just asking, 'cause this thread so far sniffs out suspiciously like
>> another "I want to talk about how *I* want to think about how (in the purest
>> theoretical sense) simulations should be designed/implemented/thought of."
>>
>> Just asking...
>>
>> --Doug
>>
>>
>> As compared to endlessly seeing that special, elegant simulation
>> implementation system that is the ideal match to this particular problem
>> domain?
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 6:26 PM, russell standish <[email protected]
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 12:46:26PM -0500, Roger Critchlow wrote:
>>> > I don't think you'll find this because it implies programming a higher
>>> > purpose and allowing the agents to jump the rails, as it were, and
>>> start
>>> > negotiating their way through the combinatorics of alternative
>>> networks.
>>> > Similarly, you won't find models in which agents invent new inputs to
>>> > monitor, new outputs to generate, and new rules which involve new
>>> inputs and
>>> > new outputs.
>>> >
>>> > Optimization within a fixed solution space, which is what we do when we
>>> let
>>> > agents play with the flow through a fixed network or let them search
>>> out the
>>> > most profitable rules in a set of prespecified alternatives, gets hairy
>>> > enough without opening things up to the infinity of potential solutions
>>> that
>>> > we didn't have time to program into the model ourselves.
>>> >
>>>
>>>  EcoLab is an example of a model where the state space evolves over
>>> time rather than staying fixed. It is not quite the ABM that Russ
>>> Abbott is looking for, but does illustrate that it is possible. One
>>> crucial feature is that there must be a separation of scales - the
>>> dynamics of the system (optimisation, or whatever) must occur more
>>> rapidly than the change to the state space. Otherwise, you get what is
>>> known in the ALife world as a mutational meltdown - evolution ceases
>>> to operate.
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>>
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Prof Russell Standish                  Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
>>> Mathematics
>>> UNSW SYDNEY 2052                         [email protected]
>>> Australia                                http://www.hpcoders.com.au
>>>
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> ============================================================
>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> ============================================================
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>>
>>
>>
>> ============================================================
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Doug Roberts
> [email protected]
> [email protected]
> 505-455-7333 - Office
> 505-670-8195 - Cell
>



-- 
Doug Roberts
[email protected]
[email protected]
505-455-7333 - Office
505-670-8195 - Cell
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