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2005 : WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT? [1]

In the News [ 17 ] [2]
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Contributors [ 120 ] [3]   |   View All Responses [ 120 ] [4]
[5]
Pamela McCorduck [5]
Author, Machines Who Think, The Universal Machine, Bounded Rationality, This Could Be Important; Co-author (with Edward Feigenbaum), The Fifth Generation
Writer; Author, Machines Who Think

Although I can't prove it, I believe that thanks to new kinds of social modeling, that take into account individual motives as well as group goals, we will soon grasp in a deep way how collective human behavior works, whether it's action by small groups or by nations. Any predictive power this understanding has will be useful, especially with regard to unexpected outcomes and even unintended consequences. But it will not be infallible, because the complexity of such behavior makes exact prediction impossible.

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Links:
[1] https://www.edge.org/annual-question/what-do-you-believe-is-true-even-though-you-cannot-prove-it
[2] https://www.edge.org/inthenews/what-do-you-believe-is-true-even-though-you-cannot-prove-it
[3] https://www.edge.org/contributors/what-do-you-believe-is-true-even-though-you-cannot-prove-it
[4] https://www.edge.org/responses/what-do-you-believe-is-true-even-though-you-cannot-prove-it
[5] https://www.edge.org/memberbio/pamela_mccorduck