Computer simulation

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 an event, process, or scenario that is created on a
computer

 This is a real problem for wing designers, who have been

forced to rely on various mathematical tricks, scale models
and computer simulations to design efficient wings.
 Among the company's high-tech projects was computer
simulation work for a powerful hypersonic aircraft engine.
Computer graphics can be used to display the results of a computer simulation

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This was done with a computer simulation of the gas molecule collisions and movement

through space in real time .

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 As a specific tool
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 Computer simulation was pioneered as a scientific tool in
meteorology and nuclear physics in the period directly
following World War II, and since then has become
indispensable in a growing number of disciplines. The list of
sciences that make extensive use of computer simulation has
grown to include astrophysics, particle physics, materials
science, engineering, fluid mechanics, climate science,
evolutionary biology, ecology, economics, decision theory,
medicine, sociology, epidemiology, and many others. There are
even a few disciplines, such as chaos theory and complexity
theory, whose very existence has emerged alongside the
development of the computational models they study.
 A broad definition

 More broadly, we can think of computer simulation as a comprehensive method
for studying systems. The entire process includes choosing a model; finding a
way of implementing that model in a form that can be run on a computer;
calculating the output of the algorithm; and visualizing and studying the
resultant data. The method includes this entire process—used to make
inferences about the target system that one tries to model—as well as the
procedures used to sanction those inferences.
 This is more or less the definition of computer simulation studies in Winsberg
2003 (111). “Successful simulation studies do more than compute numbers. They
make use of a variety of techniques to draw inferences from these numbers.
Simulations make creative use of calculational techniques that can only be
motivated extra-mathematically and extra-theoretically. As such, unlike simple
computations that can be carried out on a computer, the results of simulations
are not automatically reliable. Much effort and expertise goes into deciding
which simulation results are reliable and which are not.
Purposes of Simulation
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 Simulations can be used for heuristic purposes, for the purpose of
predicting data that we do not have, and for generating understanding
of data that we do already have.
 Under the category of heuristic models, simulations can be
further subdivided into those used to communicate knowledge
to others, and those used to represent information to ourselves. 
 For example: computer simulations of natural processes, such
as bacterial reproduction, tectonic shifting, chemical reactions,
and evolution have all been used in classroom settings to help
students visualize hidden structure in phenomena and
processes that are impractical, impossible, or costly to illustrate
in a “wet” laboratory setting.
 computer simulation can be used for prediction

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 We can use models to predict the future, or to retrodict the past;
we can use them to make precise predictions or loose and general
ones. With regard to the relative precision of the predictions we
make with simulations, we can be slightly more fine-grained in
our taxonomy.
 Is the orbit of this planet stable? What scaling law emerges in
these kinds of systems? What is the fractal dimension of the
attractor for systems of this kind? and c) Range predictions: It is
66% likely that the global mean surface temperature will increase
by between 2–5 degrees C by the year 2100; it is “highly likely”
that sea level will rise by at least two feet; it is “implausible” that
the thermohaline will shut down in the next 50 years.
 
 Computer simulations are used to study the dynamic
behaviour of objects or systems in response to conditions that
cannot be easily or safely applied in real life. For example, a
nuclear blast can be described by a mathematical model that
incorporates such variables as heat, velocity, and radioactive
emissions. Additional mathematical equations can then be
used to adjust the model to changes in certain variables, such
as the amount of fissionable material that produced the blast.
Simulations are especially useful in enabling observers to
measure and predict how the functioning of an entire system
may be affected by altering individual components within that
system.
 Virtual reality
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 Virtual reality (VR), the use of computer modeling and simulation that enables a
person to interact with an artificial three-dimensional (3-D) visual or other
sensory environment. VR applications immerse the user in a computer-generated
environment that simulates reality through the use of interactive devices, which
send and receive information and are worn as goggles, headsets, gloves, or body
suits. In a typical VR format, a user wearing a helmet with a stereoscopic screen
views animated images of a simulated environment. The illusion of “being there”
(telepresence) is effected by motion sensors that pick up the user’s movements and
adjust the view on the screen accordingly, usually in real time (the instant the user’s
movement takes place). Thus, a user can tour a simulated suite of rooms,
experiencing changing viewpoints and perspectives that are convincingly related to
his own head turnings and steps. Wearing data gloves equipped with force-feedback
devices that provide the sensation of touch, the user can even pick up and
manipulate objects that he sees in the virtual environment.
 a wide variety of practical contexts

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 weather forecasting
 forecasting of risk
 simulation of electrical circuits
 design of industrial processes, such as chemical processing plants
 strategic management and organizational studies
 robot simulators for the design of robots and robot control algorithms
 urban simulation models that simulate dynamic patterns of urban
development and responses to urban land use and transportation
policies.
 traffic engineering to plan or redesign parts of the street network
from single junctions over cities to a national highway network to
transportation system planning, design and operations.
 The most frequently asked questions

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 What if we’re living in a computer simulation?
 Have you ever wondered if life is not exactly what it’s cracked
up to be?
 Have you ever suffered from an identity crisis?
 What if the reality I’ve returned to isn’t real but just another,
more finely realised simulation?

 How can we be sure that reality is real?

 Is it logically possible that we are in a simulation?
  Can a machine achieve consciousness?
  How much should we fear the rise of artificial intelligence?
 Known as the simulation argument, it is a wonderful piece of logical
projection

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 a) The human race is likely to become extinct before reaching a “post-human”
stage.
 b) Any post-human civilisation is unlikely to run a significant number of
simulations of its evolutionary history (or variations thereof).
 c) We are almost certainly living in a computer simulation.
 D ) We are the ancestor simulations created by an advanced post-human civilisation.

 E) Homo sapiens as we know them will disappear in a century or so’

 F) That’s something to consider while pondering whether or not to splash out on some VR
entertainment. In 10,000 years’ time, it might be completely out of fashion.

 G) what we experience as reality is actually a giant computer simulation created by a more sophisticated
intelligence
 Representations of the world

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 We are seeing rapid progress in computer science, including the development of
quantum computers, whose vastly increased potential capacity would be vital for
a large-scale simulation.
 At the same time there is continued progress in artificial intelligence, virtual
reality, biotechnology and other areas that would help create more convincing
simulations. And we can see that with each new breakthrough in technology, we
tend to make better, more convincing representations of the world, both now and
in the past.
 If we assume that these developments continue, and with them our interest in creating
simulations of the world, then at some point in the future – 1,000 years, 100,000 years – it’s
reasonable to assume that the difference between reality and simulation will become
indistinguishable. At which point it will mean we will have created simulated beings with their
own consciousness.
 In the future
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 If we believe that there is nothing supernatural about
what causes consciousness and it’s merely the product
of a very complex architecture in the human brain,
we’ll be able to reproduce it. “Soon there will be
nothing technical standing in the way to making
machines that have their own consciousness,” said Rich
Terrile, a scientist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
 At the same time, videogames are becoming more and
more sophisticated and in the future we’ll be able to
have simulations of conscious entities inside them.
 The Universe is a simulation

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 Recognizing we live in a simulation is game-changing, like Copernicus realizing
Earth was not the center of the universe
 If there are many more simulated minds than organic ones, then the chances of us
being among the real minds starts to look more and more unlikely. As Terrile puts
it: “If in the future there are more digital people living in simulated environments
than there are today, then what is to say we are not part of that already?”
 Reasons to believe that the universe is a simulation include the fact that it behaves
mathematically and is broken up into pieces (subatomic particles) like a pixelated
video game. “Even things that we think of as continuous – time, energy, space,
volume – all have a finite limit to their size. If that’s the case, then our universe is
both computable and finite. Those properties allow the universe to be simulated,”
Terrile said.
 “Quite frankly, if we are not living in a simulation, it is an extraordinarily unlikely
circumstance,” he added.
 So who has created this simulation? “Our future selves,” said Terrile.
 Before Copernicus, scientists had tried to explain the
peculiar behaviour of the planets’ motion with complex
mathematical models. “When they dropped the
assumption, everything else became much simpler to
understand.”

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“We have a lot of problems in physics and we can’t blame our
failure to solve them on simulation.”
How can the hypothesis be put to the test? On one hand,
neuroscientists and artificial intelligence researchers
can check whether it’s possible to simulate the human
mind. So far, machines have proven to be good at
playing chess and Go and putting captions on images

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But can a machine achieve consciousness? We don’t know
 Simon Popple, deputy head, school of media and
communication, University of Leeds

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 YARN is a new community designed digital storytelling platform. It
was produced through the AHRC-funded Pararchive Project and
allows communities and organisations to create online stories and do
research by sharing archive material, as well as their own interesting
possessions. It does this by making institutional big data, such as
museum collections, available for anyone to access.
 By partnering with the Science Museum Group and BBC archives, we
wanted to create connections between large collections of data held in
traditionally closed archives and allow communities to explore,
experience and be creative with these resources. Organisations can
directly make recourses available through the platform and allow
people to incorporate them directly in their stories, providing
illustrations, evidence and creative resources
 What do you think the future holds for big data
and research?

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 There is a lot of potential for understanding history and society through
the big data we leave behind. An often-quoted example is the George W.
Bush Presidential Center holdings of 200 million White House emails of
the second Bush administration, which are only just becoming available
for access under the US Freedom of Information Act. It is here that big
data can be useful to researchers in the humanities and social science,
who can trace how emails appear around events and understand from
their content the mindset of decision makers. The big data that business
companies and state agencies collect from real-life sensors and mobile
devices could also become an important object for research. The question
remains, however, how to ensure access to this data, particularly when
the institutions that collect it have little incentive to make it available for
research.