Complexity Science Leads To Chaos Inc.
from the agent-based-modeling dept
Red Herring has an article looking at the small, but growing, industry surrounding agent-based modeling and complexity science to deal with complicated business issues. The article includes a few examples, including one where Southwest Airlines had a company create an agent-based simulation of their freight shipping procedures, which came up with some easily implementable suggestions that's saving them millions. I've always been fascinated by this sort of thing, but I do wonder how difficult it is to really model these complex systems correctly. While I can see how computers can be useful in playing with the variables to see what comes out - all of those model variables have to be created at first, and if you miss one or two important variables, then the whole model is shot.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Old Hat
I remember IBM tried to upgrade the FAA's traffic control system in the mid-90s, and it turned into the most spectacular failure in software history -- $1 billion lost.
What if software like this proves that the Peace Corps do more harm than good, by increasing the population of backward nations and therefore the risk of war, natural disasters? This kind of software will be a lobbyist's dream, feeding it only the data they want.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]