A whiff of reality...

[M. Lang & S. Railsback]

We just had the experience of having a conference symposium paper
rejected as the result of vitriolic comments by someone very offended by
our suggestions that (a) individual-based models (fish, in our case) are
more mechanistic and general if important behaviors are emergent instead
of forced; and (b) computer implementation issues are important and
modelers should take advantage of software professionals and tools like
Swarm and our Swarm-based fish modeling package. An exerpt:

"I very strongly DO NOT believe that the development of software
packages is the answer to the lack of use (of agent-based models) in
management. In my opinion, modelling software packages ... have a great
potential for abuse, especially in a management situation, where the
person using software that they are not REALLY familiar with try to
apply it to an inappropriate situation. It is too easy for assumptions
to go unacknowledged, and results to be applied too generally and
uncritically in these situations...It is also possible to too easily
publish studies based on prepackaged models where the modeller lacks
understanding of what the model is really doing.

Many IBMs are rather simple conceptually, and ... basic programming
techniques can be perfectly adequate. The modeller, by programming their
own IBM, gains in understanding of all the assumptions and formulations
included in the model."

(This was especially interesting because another point we made was the
importance of fully specifying a model on paper.)

Initially I was just going to send this to Glen R. as a warning in
preparing the talk on software issues in agent-based ecology that we
asked him to give this summer. But maybe others have had similar
experiences and suggestions for dealing with it? (We chose not to waste
any more of our time on this particular symposium.)

Steve
-- 
address@hidden
Lang, Railsback & Assoc.
250 California Ave., Arcata CA 95521
707-822-0453; Fax 822-1868


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