I started thinking about writing a toy model after this article was referenced in another forum:
http://www.economist.com/node/18563638 I've always viewed the initiative process a bit suspiciously. It's not that I don't trust myself or the other yahoos on the street... but I do believe in delegation. We delegate legislating to the professional legislators for a reason, I think. (which is also why I'm not a fan of electing non-legislators - laypeople, doctors, programmers, hollywood actors, etc. - to legislative positions.) But, I'm torn because, having worked in lots of multi-disciplinary teams, especially involving students, the value of a fresh perspective is ... well, priceless. It just seems we could "apply complexity" to this sort of thing and come out the other end a little more facile. I'd love to meet, say, Raul Castro's consultants and give them a modeling and simulation elevator pitch! Steve Smith wrote at 05/03/2011 08:41 PM: > I fear that there is not an obvious market. That is not to say there > is no value, it is (perhaps) hard to translate that into the market in > terms of political or economic capital. I think there is huge > (potential) social capital available, but how to translate that into a > gradient agents will follow? -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://tempusdictum.com ============================================================ 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