Author Archives: Don Neeper

Blog 13. Models and modeling

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What’s modeling?

A model is an abstraction, a physical abstraction of an object or a conceptual abstraction of a situation.  An architect might use a cardboard physical model to illustrate a proposed building.  Conceptual models can represent complex systems like population dynamics, economics, or schooling fish.  By “complex systems” I mean the things described in Blog 2 and Blog 3, situations with many independent agents governed by nonlinear rules of interaction among the agents and their surroundings.  A conceptual model often takes the form of a set of equations with which the system can be simulated by computer, thereby becoming a “computer model.”  Note I said simulated by computer, not solved by computer.   Continue reading →

Blog 12. Why a violent America?

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 In Blog 4 I asked whether this country is governed by reality or by ideology.  I used the Iraq wars, banking, and gun violence as examples.   That example of gun violence raises a larger question.

 Big Question:

Does the continuing public debate on guns overlook violence itself as an underlying cultural characteristic, an unwritten rule of interaction in a complex  social system? Continue reading →

Blog 11. Science, Society, and Belief

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Science

Science is a method for establishing truth based on observation, experiment, measurement, and syllogistic logic. As the physicist Richard Feynman said, science is a method of organizing your information so as to avoid being fooled. Science offers a reliable way of knowing about the physical world.  It can establish facts, but not human values. Is that why much of today’s society—or at least today’s politics—seems to be anti-science?

Continue reading →

Blog 10. Economics and Carrots and Social Security

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Political arguments.

Political arguments whirl regarding the solvency of Social Security, the enduring recession, the inability of congress to pass a budget, and the monetary loans intended to postpone the collapse of Spain and Greece.  The arguments don’t address the sisgnificant question.  In the absence of war or pestilence, why do economic systems collapse even though the physical methods to produce food, clothing, and shelter exist unchanged?

Continue reading →

Blog 9. Is regulation a dirty word?

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Imposed ideology?

Regulation is not always an imposition of political ideology.  Most regulation is adopted by governmental agencies such as a city planning commission or the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), supposedly away from elected bodies like city councils, state legislatures, and congress. Regulation– from speed limits to barber licenses or pollution control– is theoretically free from partisan ideology.  That’s a nice theory, but a myth.

Continue reading →

Blog 7. Briefcase-carrying bureaucrats

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A friend wrote, “…I have soured on what can really be done. The EPA and the state Environment Department are easily bought out… .”  Sounds like a rabid tree-hugging environmentalist.  Actually, I think he votes with the conservative cause.

Citizens are everywhere discouraged, feeling that their governmental agencies and the people in those agencies lack integrity. “Briefcase-carrying bureaucrats” Continue reading →

Blog 6. The RCRA exemption, an emergent phenomenon?

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 The RCRA exemption: an example.

RCRA (reckra) exemption? Sounds like the Shawshank Redemption. But this is no movie. It’s a story with few evil villains and handsome heroes, but plenty of villainy and heroic struggle. It’s an illustration of how a self-destructive behavior emerges in our supposedly-free society. Continue reading →