In the course of today's technical meeting, two ideas came up that I found particularly interesting. One was to write some sort of a explanation for attentive readers of the present state of modeling and simulation (I think that was it). I found the idea particularly interesting because I have done some science writing for the public. We were casting around for a model....Gulliver's travels, A Connecticut Yankee...., . As a different possible model, I offer Kipling's Just so stories. To illustrate the point, I have posted on the aforementioned primitive website, (home.earthlink.net/~nthompson) an example of using the Just So story framework to explain something, as if to a child. I particularly wish some of you would look at this and tell me where the dickens I can get it published. I have tried everything form Skeptic for Kids to Harpers. No dice.
The second idea concerned models as metaphors. I have always taken an interest in the natural selection metaphor, and so I posted a paper I wrote, SHIFTING THE NATURAL SELECTION METAPHOR TO THE GROUP LEVEL, which is an attempt to untangle some of the threads of the group selection argument in terms of ambiguities in understanding the meta-metaphor that is group selection. As you will see, this particularly relates to my struggles with DSWilson.
Thanks again for everybody's help and I will see you all on Friday.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Professor of Psychology and Ethology
Clark University
[hidden email]
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/[hidden email]
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