The electronic oracle : computer models and social decisions

Bibliographic Information

The electronic oracle : computer models and social decisions

D.H. Meadows and J.M. Robinson

Wiley, c1985

Available at  / 14 libraries

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Includes bibliographies and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This book describes the state of the art of social-system modeling, especially at the level of national planning. In an unusually clear and understandable language it approaches the controversial and often confused debate in the use of computer models in social decision making from an entirely new direction. By looking at the entire subject - including the political and philosophical environments around the models as well as the models themselves - from an objective, and knowledgeable viewpoint, the authors show how computer modeling is a powerful, but limited tool. Written from an insiders' viewpoint, with an outsiders' sceptism, this book is of continuing relevance and too important not to publish.

Table of Contents

  • Prologue
  • Part I: Introduction
  • The Electronic Oracle
  • Part II: Modeling Paradigms
  • Models of Modeling
  • Part III: Nine Models
  • How to Describe a Model
  • SAHEL: The Tragedy of the Commons
  • RfF: Adding a Combine to a Tractor
  • SOS: The Perfectly -adjusting Society
  • TEMPO": Educating the Third World
  • LTSM: The Race Between Production and Consumption
  • BACHUE: A Twenty-Legged Robot
  • KASM: Not a Ureee but a Stew
  • MexicoV: Statistical Patches
  • CHAC: Optimising Mexican Agriculture
  • Part IV: The State of the Art
  • Model Content: The Process of Industrialization
  • Model Quality: Advantages of Computer Models
  • Implementation: Changing the World
  • Part V: Prescriptions
  • An Inventory of Suggestions
  • The Transformation of Modeling
  • Epilogue.

by "Nielsen BookData"

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