The Role of Expressiveness in Modelling Structural Change - Bruce Edmonds

3 The Need for More Expressive Formal Systems when Modelling Structural Change

Purely numerical modelling is not well suited to encapsulating the context-dependent effects of imperfect knowledge. Principally there what is lacking is a distinction drawn between form and meaning (syntax and semantics). This allows for the effects listed above: the form can be the same, but the meaning dependent on the context; a communicated form may have different meanings for sender and recipient; bounded rationality is only possible if there is not a perfect immediate correspondence between form and its meaning; innovation can only occur if the form is not obvious from its intended use; and genuine surprise can only occur if one does not have prefect knowledge of one's environment but a model with only an indirect correspondence with reality.

Thus despite the great success of purely numerical techniques in many areas, in order to capture some important effects occurring during structural change it is likely that more expressive formal systems will need to be introduced.

The Role of Expressiveness in Modelling Structural Change - Bruce Edmonds - 16 MAY 96

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