Mind the hubris in mathematical modeling

Arnald Puy; Andrea Saltelli

doi:10.48550/arXiv.2207.12230

Mind the hubris in mathematical modeling

Arnald Puy, Andrea Saltelli

Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Research output: Working paper/Preprint › Preprint

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Abstract

Here we briefly reflect on the philosophical foundations that ground the quest towards ever-detailed models and identify four practical dangers derived from this pursuit: explosion of the model's uncertainty space, model black-boxing, computational exhaustion and model attachment. We argue that the growth of a mathematical model should be carefully and continuously pondered lest models become extraneous constructs chasing the Cartesian dream.

Original language	English
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2207.12230
Publication status	Published - 22 Jun 2022

Bibliographical note

This is a draft of a chapter that has been accepted for publication by Oxford University Press in the forthcoming book "Views on Responsible Modeling", edited by Andrea Saltelli and Monica Di Fiore and due for publication in 2022

Keywords

cs.GL
math.HO

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Cite this

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Mind the hubris in mathematical modeling

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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Cite this