GOING CRITICAL — a
interactive essay!
How to prevent disease, control nuclear reactions, and encourage the spread of ideas. All with playable simulations.
https://meltingasphalt.com/interactive/going-critical …pic.twitter.com/UBIhO2Aadr
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A little context on the medium, to set the stage:
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This is my first attempt at what
@ncasenmare has been doing (brilliantly) for years: using simulations to explain complex ideas. It's possible to convey the same ideas using text and static images. But simulations are a lot more compelling, IMO. And also more *real.*2 replies 4 retweets 62 likesShow this thread -
What do I mean by "real"?
@DavidDeutschOxf has this great line in FoR — that reality "kicks back." Meaning it exists outside the mind and is capable of independent behavior.2 replies 5 retweets 51 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @KevinSimler @DavidDeutschOxf
1/ The model is more real, but the connection to the reality it is trying to model is not. You do this thing in this article that I see around here that I think is a general error mode, and it is exemplified by "I know this is an oversimplified model but...".
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2/ This does a few things. The first obvious one is that oversimplification is more likely wrong. The next is not so obvious. By handwaving away this oversimplification, by not including a great deal of examination of the connection between model and reality, reality is lost...
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3/ The model dominates attention and the phenomena are viewed through it, without any idea of how to see around it. This connection needs to be the *central* focus of the modelling process.
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4/ The last risk is probably more for your audience but they are generally going to have too much respect for math in itself. If you throw around Serious Math like percolation theory, much of this audience will take it more seriously simply because it does this, not bc it is true
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thanks for reminding me of this risk. i try not to ""math"" at people, but i also want to point people at the literature so... shrug
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