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As with any M&S project, one must start with the use cases. If you
don't start with your use cases, then you'll end up wandering around,
mixing things up and forgetting what you're doing. As they say "if you
don't know where you're going, you'll never get there."
Hussein's "story" implies a use case, except it's got too many
mechanistic details. You want the use case to be phenomenal, not
mechanistic. So, the second (implied) story works better: "How can we
undo it?" What would you _do_ with this model? Can you perform any
experiments ("in vitro" upon a room full of participants - or "in vivo"
on an actual government) against which to validate? If so, what would
those experiments look like and what data would they generate?
Those are the questions you have to ask first, before you get all
mechanical on each other. ;-) Worst case, if you don't ask these
questions _first_, you'll inscribe your conclusions into the model.
You'll create a model that's nothing more than a justificationist
tautology. You'll probably _still_ commit inscription error even if you
do start with the use cases, depending on the complicatedness of the
experiments or type of validation; but your inscription be easier to
spot and correct as you go along.
Hussein Abbass wrote circa 11-05-08 06:36 PM:
> Let me put this in a simple story. Prof. Clever is the dean of
> Faculty of Idiots. Prof Clever would like to be a dictator in a
> democratic society. He appoints 3 other Professors to form a strategy
> committee. He believes in separating strategy from execution, thanks
> to all the wonderful literature in management on that topic. Prof.
> Clever cancelled most Faculty public meetings and created many
> committees. These committees seek people opinion to have a truly
> democratic environment. He told the people we are a civilized
> society. We should not confront each other in public. Issues can be
> solved smoothly in a better environment and within a small group.
> Public meetings are now to simply give presentations that no
> controversial issue is discussed; their information content is 0 to
> anyone attending them. But they demonstrate democracy and support the
> members of the Faculty of Idiots’ right for dissemination of
> information. Prof. Clever promotes good values. Important values that
> Prof. Clever is promoting are trust and confidentiality. In meetings,
> people need to trust each other to facilitate exchange of
> information. But this requires confidentiality; otherwise problems
> will emerge. Obviously, meetings are called by management, members of
> the meetings are engineered by management, the whole social network
> is well-engineered such that different type of information do not get
> crossed from one sub-graph to another. The faculty of Idiots is the
> happiest faculty on earth. No public confrontation means no fights, a
> well-engineered civilized society. Small group meetings are dominated
> with Prof. Clever or simply take place to tick a box in a report.
> There is only one person in the Faculty of Idiots who knows
> everything, Prof. Clever. No one else knows more than anyone else to
> the extent that everyone simply knows nothing. But everyone is happy,
> everyone feels important because he/she is trusted and everyone feels
> they are well-informed of the task they are performing! Prof. Clever
> eliminated competition, no leader can emerge in this social system
> that he does not approve. Prof. Clever is the nice guy that everyone
> loves and respect. He listens, he is socially friendly, and after all
> is indeed Clever!
>
> [...]
>
> The harder question for me is, how can we undo it if it is engineered
> as above?
- --
glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://tempusdictum.com
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