Increasingly, citizens and policymakers are faced with the results of computer models and must make judgments about the model's relevance and validity. How can such decisions be made in an intelligent and informed manner? Can modeling be made accessible to the ordinary person or will it remain the special magic of a technical priesthood? This paper offers tentative answers to these questions. It first highlights the characteristics and capabilities of computer models such as are used in foresight and policy analysis. The advantages and disadvantages, uses and misuses of formal models are presented. What are the fundamental assumptions of the major modeling techniques? How appropriate are these techniques for foresight activities? What are the crucial questions a model user or model consumer should ask when evaluating the appropriateness and validity of a model? The paper is designed to help model consumers peek inside these computerized black boxes.

This is the whole item.

Date created

• 1985

Type

• Document

Processing Activity

• Processing documentation available at: https://wiki.albany.edu/display/SCA/Processing+Ingested+Digital+Files

License

• Creative Commons BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International

  
  Contact Us for questions or additional rights.

ITEM CONTEXT

Part of

11576afb39e5cd4a779a3912c119ca81

Scope and Contents

Part of

8cc5e98280358f60c3a33cc99e75a20e

Scope and Contents

Part of

23d738ba88f8333bc39725f9cb5bd0b8

Scope and Contents

Collection

System Dynamic Society Records

Scope and Contents

Collecting area

• This collection is part of the University Archives