Arbesman: Simulations reveal non-linearities and unexpected behaviors in complex systems
Sam Arbesman · #15 Samuel Arbesman: Future-Proof Your Knowledge · Nov 28, 2016 · at 39:03
Complexity scientist Samuel Arbesman discusses mental models for understanding complex technological systems with Shane Parrish.
0:00 / 0:35exact quote · 35.6s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Another kind of approach that I advocate with these technologies is like having simulations, like the same way that in playing with, like in playing SimCity, you might gain a better sense of the complexity of a city rather than not necessarily the details of the city, because SimCity is clearly an oversimplification of a real city, but you still kind of understand the Like, the non-linearities in a city's performance, or the bounds of how it operates. I think the same kind of thing, if you have a simulation for a technology, you'll gain kind of a better appreciation for how it works, and like, maybe even how it bites back, and does weird things you want to expect, and I think that kind of thing is really important.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Sam Arbesman
Arbesman: Relying on Google over memory ensures more up-to-date knowledge
“When people talk about how the internet and Google is ruining our brains or our memories I am actually much more positively inclined towards those technologies simply because it, if we don't necessarily have as good memories anymore, It means that we now actua…”
Arbesman: Algorithmically generated art elicits similar emotional responses to human art
“I imagine if you don't tell someone where it comes from, you probably can get a similar kind of response, especially if it's almost indistinguishable.”
Arbesman: People fail to update 'mesofacts' that change over decades
“So miso facts were sort of facts that bits of information that change neither too slowly nor too rapidly. They're sort of at the middle or miso scale. The idea is that there's bits of knowledge that change very, very rarely, like how many constants there are o…”
Arbesman: Science is a querying method where all knowledge is a draft
“Science is, it's a body of knowledge, but even more important than that, science is really a means of querying the world, and I think recognizing that everything we know is constantly in draft form is really, like, that's the way we should be thinking about th…”
Arbesman: Science and art are beautiful outputs constrained by reality and medium
“Science is almost like beautiful output constrained by reality, and art is also beautiful output constrained by reality of the media that you're using in some very different sort of ways.”
Arbesman: Physical books hedge against technological disruption better than ebooks
“Physical books are a great hedge against like technological change. And I know if like my physical book, if I like 20 years from now it will still be kind of backwards compatible with the human eye. But and like an ebook, not entirely clear”