Shhh!
Someone might hear you!
Seriously, good question, Robert. The answer, of course, is that it depends
on the questions being asked about the system being simulated. If the
questions are such that a simple simulation can provide answers, then
force-fitting a large, more detailed simulation to provide results will
probably be of no advantage whatever.
It is for systems -- typically highly complex, dynamic systems -- when
certain questions are asked for which simple simulations can provide no
relevant insight that a larger, more complex simulation can sometimes
effectively be brought to bear.
All the usual codicils apply to the above paragraph, such as
1. the big, detailed simulation is detailed in the proper areas to
address the analysis requirements,
2. the analysis requirements make sense,
3. data exists to support the detailed rendering of the physical
system being modeled, and
4. the analyst knows what he's doing.
The reality is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for simulations.
--Doug
--
Doug Roberts, RTI International
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
505-455-7333 - Office
505-670-8195 - Cell
On 3/29/07, Robert Holmes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
In my role as FRIAM's official Cassandra (I should get a T-shirt printed),
has anyone ever shown that these highly intensive simulations give
quantitatively better results than, say, something written on Owen's laptop
in NetLogo? Do we know that we get a better assessment of (for example) the
robustness of policies for stopping epidemic spread or do we rely on the
"more is better" argument? ("Of course, the results are better - we have an
NSF grant and 15 supercomputers").
R
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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============================================================
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
