On the Limits of Bottom-Up Computer Simulation: Towards a Nonlinear Modeling Culture

1 In the complexity and simulation communities there is growing support for the use of bottom-up computer-based simulation in the analysis of complex systems. The presumption is that because these models are more complex than their linear predecessors they must be more suited to the modeling of systems that appear, superficially at least, to be (compositionally and dynamically) complex. Indeed the apparent ability of such models to allow the emergence of collective phenomena from quite simple underlying rules is very compelling. But does this ‘evidence’ alone ‘prove’ that nonlinear bottom-up models are superior to simpler linear models when considering complex systems behavior? Philosophical explorations concerning the efficacy of models, whether they be formal scientific models or our personal worldviews, has been a popular pastime for many philosophers, particularly philosophers of science. This paper offers yet another critique of modeling that uses the results and observati...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: HICSS
• Authors: Kurt A. Richardson
• Keywords: Biometrics, Complex Systems, HICSS 2003, Linear Models, Nonlinear Bottom-up Models, System Sciences