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Showing posts from March, 2012

All Models are Wrong. . .

I spent the last three days in a simulation class.  The class was to teach us to create models and run FEA (finite element analysis) studies so that we might solve various mechanical engineering problems. One of the first things the teacher told us was that, “all models are wrong.”  He was speaking of computer models relationship to physical objects, but my mind has stayed on this topic and has continued to explore it beyond computer models.  He emphasized this, so that we could keep it foremost in our minds when doing computer simulations, that physical objects are only approximated by computer models and must have limitations and flaws in their representation of reality. “All Models are Wrong”. . . it comes to me that our mental image of the world is another model.  We have a mental model of the entirety of our interaction with the universe we live in, and it must be recognized that our mental image is not reality, but only a model of reality.  We can only create a mental model in te