Modeller

“ We will explore the connection with economic patterns more in the next two chapters. ↑ I’m using “artifact” in a very broad sense here. Some models are themselves physical systems (consider a model airplane) , while others are mathematical constructions that are supposed to capture some interesting behavior of the system in question. The main point of model-building is to create something that can be more easily manipulated and studied than the object itself, with the hope that in seeing how the model behaves, we can learn something interesting about the world. ”

“ And however carefully you have worked out your invention on paper you will find that when you come to make a model, or have one made, you will have to change it not once but many times, that is if it is a machine in which a number of parts are made use of and you may have to re-design it and re-construct it several times. ”

“ So skilful had he become in the making of clay idols that his fame had spread for many li round, and idol-sellers from all the neighbouring villages, and even from the towns, came to him for their stock. No other idol-maker between Honan and Nanking employed so many clay-gatherers or so many modellers; yet, with all his riches, his avarice increased till at length he employed men whom he called ‘agents’ and ‘travellers,’ who went from house to house selling his idols and extolling his virtues in verses composed by the most illustrious poets of the day. ”

“ Some of these designs have been noticed in the Inspector's report that he had 'found that the teaching of the calculus was leading to a most interesting evolution of design.'
The beauty of some of the designs is unquestionable; and there can be no second opinion about the value of the method, as training, from the point of view of geometry as well as from that of art. What is not quite so obvious at first sight is its bearing on the training of the unconscious mind for science. ”

“ To represent: there is a complex model, which is too big to be used as a whole. Such a model can be associated to a simplified model, which on its turn is associated only to a section of the main model. Such a model represents the main model on the restricted domain. We should never forget that a representation model is based on the main model, and the main model only is fully associated to the external reality. ”

“ Imagine yourselves before a living model, man or woman, with a pencil, and a piece of paper twice the dimensions of your hand, on which to copy it. Certainly, you cannot be expected to reproduce the magnitude of the limbs, for your paper is too small; nor can you be expected to reproduce their color, for you have only black and white to work with. What you have to do is to reproduce their relationships, and first the proportions, that is to say, the relationships of magnitude. ”

“ Abstract A number of logical problems in conceptual modelling can be solved by expressing the models in the form of universal statements. This leads to distinguishing two type of conceptual model, those used in main stream SSM and those used in Multiview, on the basis of whether the universals are definitions or inductive hypotheses. The models can be formulated in the predicate calculus and these formulations can be converted into the rules of Knowledge Based Systems. ”

“ Modelling differs from drawing and painting in that every side of the model is visible, while only the face of the painting is presented to the eye, where the impression of form and outline is worked out on a flat surface. ”

“ If there are many persons who participate in an experiment, everyone will make his/her own model based on his/her own structure of models. What everyone gets and sees depends on one's own structure of models. ”

“ For instance, it is argued that when a man observes a watch or a telescope, or any article that has been made to answer a certain purpose, and the mechanism of which is so adjusted as to effect the desired object, it is said that from the marks of design or contrivance observed in the mechanism, he infers that these articles are the products of some human designer. ”

“ As we know, a stable model is a model which correlates in a right way all the available information. But, there is no guarantee that we gain enough information to make the right model. This basic deficiency is attenuated by the fact that there is a structure of models. The structure of models helps a lot when we interact with a new external reality because it can make predictions based on the previous interaction with other external realities. On the other hand, the structure of models is like a brake for evolution if the structure has problems. ”

“ By examining carefully the several gradations which conduce to bring every model to perfection, we learn truly to know that science in which the model is formed: as histories of this kind, therefore, may properly be called models of human life, so, by observing minutely the several incidents which tend to the catastrophe or completion of the whole, and the minute causes whence those incidents are produced, we shall best be instructed in this most useful of all arts, which I call the art of life. ”

“ This grand design, this unalterable impression of all existence, is the model upon which she invariably acts; a model of which all the features are so strongly impressed, that they can never be effaced ”

“ We draw by modeling, that is to say, that we disengage an object from its setting; the distribution of the light alone gives to a body the appearance by which we know it. So I have not defined the outlines; I have suffused them with a haze of half-tints warm or golden, in such a sort that you can not lay your finger on the exact spot where background and contours meet. ”

“ Once we have a model associated with a specific external reality, the model is considered as a good model based on the predictions which are already done. There is no guarantee that the model will continue to be good in any situation and any time. ”

“ After you have taken a figure, or any idea of a figure, from any of those great Painters, there is another operation still remaining, which I hold to be indispensably necessary—that is, never to neglect finishing from nature every part of the work. What is taken from a model, though the first idea may have been suggested by another, you have a just right to consider as your own property. ”

“ When you get an abstract idea for a design or a [69] machine that you want to put in concrete form take a rule and compasses, pencil and paper and draw it out to scale, that is, make a drawing of it and mark the sizes, or dimensions, of each part just as it should be when the thing is done. ”

“ We already defined reality as all the information that is or could be generated by a model by simulation. The guarantee of a correct reality is the stability of the model but the stability of the model is not a guarantee that the model is capable to accurately reflect the associated external reality. ”

“ The law requires that the inventor shall deliver a model of his invention or improvement when the same admits of a model. The model should he neatly made, and as small as a distinct representation of the machine or improvement, and its characteristic properties, will admit ”

“ In making a machine from your own ideas and plans no one can do the work so well as yourself provided you can do the work at all and besides it is cheaper and far more satisfactory.
Should you have a fat pocket-book and at the same time a taste for inventing and the sciences—these elements seldom go hand in mind—but if they should get close together in your case I say, the right way to make a model is to hire skilled men to do the work while you do the thinking and the assembling in your private lab. ”

“ I have here considered Design as manifest in organization only: for in that field of speculation it is forced upon us as contained in all the phenomena, and as the only mode of our understanding them. The existence of Final Causes has often been pointed out in other portions of the creation;—for instance, in the apparent adaptations of the various parts of the earth and of the solar system to each other and to organized beings. In these provinces of speculation, however, the principle of Final Causes is no longer the basis and guide, but the sequel and result of our physical reasonings. ”

“ As we already mentioned, reality is the one generated by the model associated to a given external reality. Each time we state a truth, we have to specify first the model.
Example: There are an A and a B person. A is taller than B, as it results from measurement. The term 'length' is generated of the model 'space', as Euclid's Geometry and Newton's Mechanics understand it. These fundamental models characterize this truth as objective. If we say that "A is more attractive than B", this is a subjective truth. ”

“ Another functional facility is described here. We see that a model can activate any of its elements to develop itself as a model. But, even if an element is already developed as a model, the main model continues to treat it as an element. ”

“ The model is used for all that is on the outside—movement, proportions, physical characteristics, beauty of form,—for all, in fact, except, however, just that turn of the head and look of the eye, that movement of the lips, dilation of the nostrils, and a thousand other signs and indications on the face which reveal the inner struggles of the soul. ”

“ The structure of models, including PSM, is almost invariant and, as a consequence, the brain has not the flexibility required by a fast evolution of the society.
4. Education is chaotic. Too many image models are built in the period of development, and the symbolic models are not adequate to reality. For instance, mathematical calculations are prefered to the construction and operation of general symbolic models. Even worse, the students are not taught to think based on symbolic models. Terms like image model (analog) and symbolic model are not known at the level of general formal education. ”

“ Huxley admits this. I discover adaptation and contrivance, not only in the products but in the very process of development. Viewed in this light, development may, in the hands of a new Paley, furnish further and very striking cases of design. For, in order to the success of the process, there is often need of coördinated structure, that is, of a structure in which a number of parts are adapted to each other. ”

“ Generally speaking if it is a mechanical or an electro-mechanical scheme you begin by drawing this brain-child of yours on paper and then you make a model, or try to, and you add to it, take away from it, tear it down sometimes and at others you scrap it and build an entirely new one. ”

“ The person has to build several models. These models could be, in this example: - accident - test - movie - computer game - cartoon
This is just an example. In an actual situation, the person should not only build several models, but also develop them progressively, in parallel, along with new data adding to the initial information.
After a certain accumulation of information, the person might stabilize to a single model, but if he/she has not enough information, and does not realize it, this can be a sign that there could be a problem. ”

“ The quality of the surface left by the skilled artist or artisan is more regarded than symmetry of design, or even than correct modelling. Frequently only the important parts in a design are carefully finished and the rest merely sketched: the mode of working, whether by modelling-tools or hammer, being always left apparent. ”

“ You must not look for so much decision, and you must study [Pg 368] values closely. Look more for the modelling of the mass than for the modelling of surface. Look more for the vibration of light and air on the flesh and drapery colors than for these colors in themselves. Look for color of contours in the model. Study the subtleties of values of contours, and make your figure relieve by the contrast of value in mass rather than by the modelling within the outline. ”

“ Working by the methods of graphic statics, the engineer’s task is, in theory, one of great simplicity. He begins by drawing in outline the structure which he desires to erect; he calculates the stresses and bending-moments necessitated by the dimensions and load on the structure; he draws a new diagram representing these forces, and he designs and builds his fabric on the lines of this statical diagram. He does, in short, precisely what we have seen nature doing in the case of the bone. ”

“ We can suppose that persons who have the tendency to build models will have difficulties to assimilate external models. Their tendency will be to modify any external model in a personal manner. At the same time a person with capabilities of assimilation of external models, will have diffculties in building own new models, and will not try to modify the assimilated models, even if they are not suitable to the external reality anymore. ”

“ A distinction must be observed between the models which have been described and those experimental models which present on a small scale a machine that is subsequently to be completed on a larger, so as to afford a trial of its capabilities. Here it must be noted that a mere alteration in dimensions is often sufficient to cause a material Experimental Models. ”

“ I have observed that he who exercises little or no selection, and contents himself with the first model he sees, belongs to that class of conventional artists who allow themselves such an infinity of additions and subtractions, and corrections of the model, that generally only the remnants of nature are to be found in their works; while those who follow the opposite school copy the model minutely just as it is, and even with all its imperfections. ”