The Stanford Modeling Class has started, I thought I'd give a summary of what's up so far. The website is: https://www.coursera.org/modelthinking/
First of all, this is NOT a deep dive into exotic techniques. Rather it is a *very* broad overview of modeling, answering the question "why model". With each discussion point Scott gives concrete examples, but without having to write code or "do the math". The name of the class, Model Thinking, captures this difference: he is guiding us through a new way of thinking that is precise and relatively well understood by now. So it is much more a very high level view of modeling (mainly Agent Based Modeling but also simple mathematical and graphical models) with the emphasis on very clear thinking. One quick example: Aggregation. This is the reductionist dilemma. How do you either 1 - Look at a Macro event and deduce its parts, or 2 - Look at simple Micro rules and deduce the results. Water, a micro molecule and a macro substance. The molecule cannot be "wet". Or Schelling's segregation model: at the micro level, individuals are quite tolerant, wanting only a few like neighbors, yet the result is a surprising large value of segregation. He also introduces a metric for segregation, The Dissimilarity Index, so we can be precise. He also looks at the Game of Life and CA's in a similar way. Unlike the Machine Learning class, there are readings, generally classics in the field. The first session's readings, for example, are Josh Epstein's "Why Model" and Scott's introduction to his class. Both are very "humanities" over "computation". I've uploaded my class notes, 2 2/3 sets thus far: they are screen captures with pdf annotations. You can get a feel for the class quickly by thumbing through them. They are at http://backspaces.net/temp/ and begin with ModelThinking. I do have to confess: there is a method in my madness in writing this email. I find learning in a cave, by myself, less fun than having some others along for the ride. So if anyone does take the bait .. and ends up following the class, lets get together and chat about it. And don't feel you have to be a Scientist or Mathematician or Hacker .. you don't. -- Owen
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