On the Epistemology of Computer Simulation

Pias, Claus

doi:10.28937/1000107521

Cited by 21 publications

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“…Given these practical challenges, it amounts to a matter of epistemological realism to see computer simulation marked by ‘hypothetical and heuristic aspects’ and a ‘general inexactitude’ (Pias, 2011: 32; see also Hörl, 2008). According to Claus Pias, who is the Director of the Research Centre on Media Cultures of Computer Simulation (MECS) at Leuphana University (Lüneburg, Germany), in computer simulation ‘performance dissociates from accuracy’ (Pias, 2011: 34) and ‘adequacy replaces proofs’ (p. 35). Pias’ assessment thus corroborates the view that the knowledge produced through the simulation of pandemics is characterized not by correlation but is constitutively infused with approximations, estimations and speculations.…”

Section: From Representation To the Doubling Of Reality: A God’s Eye mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Collier, 2009; Aradau and van Munster, 2011; Amoore, 2013), without focusing their analytical gaze on the phenomenon itself. Accordingly, the literature on pandemic simulation is relatively scarce, notwithstanding some important contributions (Pias, 2011; Gramelsberger and Mansnerus, 2012; Davis et al, 2017). In particular, a deeper understanding of the actual use of simulation methods in the contemporary regime of global health security would be desirable.…”

Section: Conclusion: Global Self-observation In Times Of Catastrophementioning

confidence: 99%

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Simulating the world

Opitz

2016

European Journal of Social Theory

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If the twentieth century was the age of the world picture taken as a photograph of the Whole Earth from outer space, today’s observations of the planet are produced by means of computer simulation. Pandemic models are of paramount sociological interest in this respect, since modelling contagion is closely intertwined with modelling the material connectivities of social life. By envisioning the global dynamics of disease transmission, pandemic simulations enact the relationscapes of a transnational world. This article seeks to analyse such an enactment: It asks how simulation methods can establish a particular relation to the social from within the social. To provide an answer to this question, and adopting Niklas Luhmann’s theory of world society, pandemic simulations are described as modes of global self-observation that can be specified factually, socially, spatially and temporally. They instantiate a ‘doubling of reality’ designed to apprehend the potential future threat of disease transmission along the pathways marked by global infrastructures. They constitute scopic regimes that virtually synthesize a global situation of universal communicability in order to turn the world into an object of political intervention.

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Section: From Representation To the Doubling Of Reality: A God’s Eye mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conclusion: Global Self-observation In Times Of Catastrophementioning

confidence: 99%

Simulating the world

Opitz

2016

European Journal of Social Theory

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“…Science fiction has always been about envisioning malleable extrapolations of state-of-the-art science and technology (Shaw, 2011), a perspective that gains a deeper significance when we think about the rising pervasiveness of computer simulation and modelling in the last decades (Pias, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-Entangling Design and Science Fiction: The Case of Daleko

Luersen¹

2021

IJFMA

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The present article discusses how speculative design relates to technoscientific extrapolation, an important science fiction feature, to plan for potential scenarios and prototype viable models of futurity. Through it, the paper outlines some important nuances between different approaches concerning speculative design’s role, considering their particular epistemological assumptions. A specific case is presented and discussed: Daleko (2020), a project developed for the Strelka Institute’s Terraforming program. This project consists of nine science fiction pieces that entangle issues of waste management, technical infrastructure, and climate politics, discussing the problematic conception of waste as a form of externality and imagining future scenarios for managing it through a more holistic perspective. By analysing Daleko’s approach to speculative design, in its final section the article suggests further developing speculative projects in contexts of design education. This would serve towards stimulating designers to ponder how their craft relates to anthropogenic impact and how it can play a decisive role in prospecting more viable future scenarios.

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“…They function alongside the various visual forms they become temporarily fixed to, like the curve. But such images also provide a "description of society" that asks serious questions for "government, control and power" (Pias 2011). Hence, the question is: how do diagrams present a description of society in ways that representational images do not?…”

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confidence: 99%

The Operational Loops of a Pandemic

Sampson¹,

Parikka²

2021

Cultural Politics

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This article analyzes the visual operations of contagions and their material aftereffects. Data visualizations and diagrams have played a key role in the visual culture of the contagion, and this article explores especially two recurring themes: curves and simulations. The article addresses the data diagrams that describe and predict, advise and control actions during the pandemic. The authors argue that these curves and simulations are also crucial epistemic and aesthetic occurrences that produce the long tale of the epidemic as it pertains to a variety of actions from policy making to affective responses. Furthermore, the text investigates the theme of the operational loop to help us grasp statistical curves and simulations as part of a multiscalar logic of the epidemic image and to discuss the temporal modalities of these various images and diagrams. The article also includes David Benqué’s speculative diagrams of contagion loops that present an artistic response to the theoretical theme.

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On the Epistemology of Computer Simulation

Cited by 21 publications

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Simulating the world

Simulating the world

Re-Entangling Design and Science Fiction: The Case of Daleko

The Operational Loops of a Pandemic

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