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Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction, his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, music, and current events. Valéry was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 12 different years.
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A scientific theory is an explanation of an aspect of the natural world and universe that can be repeatedly tested and corroborated in accordance with the scientific method, using accepted protocols of observation, measurement, and evaluation of results. Where possible, some theories are tested under controlled conditions in an experiment. In circumstances not amenable to experimental testing, theories are evaluated through principles of abductive reasoning. Established scientific theories have withstood rigorous scrutiny and embody scientific knowledge.
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Artificial life is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemistry. The discipline was named by Christopher Langton, an American theoretical biologist, in 1986. In 1987 Langton organized the first conference on the field, in Los Alamos, New Mexico. There are three main kinds of alife, named for their approaches: soft, from software; hard, from hardware; and wet, from biochemistry. Artificial life researchers study traditional biology by trying to recreate aspects of biological phenomena.
All models are wrong is a common aphorism and anapodoton in statistics; it is often expanded as "All models are wrong, but some are useful". The aphorism acknowledges that statistical models always fall short of the complexities of reality but can still be useful nonetheless. The aphorism originally referred just to statistical models, but it is now sometimes used for scientific models in general.
References
- ↑ www.gsb.stanford.edu
- ↑ Charles P. Bonini (1963) Simulation of information and decision systems in the firm, Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall
- ↑ W. H. Starbuck (1976) Organizations and their environments; In: M. D. Dunnette (ed.), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology Chicago: Rand, p. 1069-1123
- ↑ Dutton, John M; Starbuck, William H (1971). Computer Simulation of Human Behavior . Wiley. ISBN 0471228508.
- ↑ Valéry, Paul (1942). Mauvaises pensées et autres. Paris: Éditions Gallimard.
- ↑ Valéry, Paul (1970). Collected Works of Paul Valéry, Volume 14, Analects. Translated by Stuart Gilbert. Princeton University Press. p. 466.
- ↑ Levins, Richard (1966). "The strategy of model building in population biology" (PDF). American Scientist . 54 (4): 421–431. JSTOR 27836590. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 February 2016.
- ↑ Odenbaugh, Jay (15 February 2007). "The strategy of "The strategy of model building in population biology"". Biology & Philosophy. 21 (5): 607–621. doi:10.1007/s10539-006-9049-3. S2CID 171020133.
- ↑ Orzack, Steven Hecht; Sober, Elliott (December 1993). "A Critical Assessment of Levins's The Strategy of Model Building in Population Biology (1966)" (PDF). The Quarterly Review of Biology. 68 (4): 533–546. doi:10.1086/418301. S2CID 83524824.