MDMD(4) p.123 small re-write

[Jeremy Osner]

Brian D. McCary wrote:
> 
> This doesn't so much mean that the butterfly changes or causes the weather.
> Rather, it means that if you run one model, starting in July, with no butterfly
> wings in Siberia, and a second one, including a local increase there the
> butterfly is flapping, one model may predict a blizzard in Akron in six months,
> and the other one might not.  It is a limitation on the usefulness of the model.
> This same effect (which limits model efectiveness) shows up in most long term
> modeling of any complex system, including most economic or political ones.
> 

Venturing furthur off topic, I note:

Also cartographic ones. This note on the inadequacy of models makes me
think of Borges' story (I don't remember what it's called) about an
ancient race of mapmakers -- they are perpetually dismayed at the
inability of their maps to model reality adequately; eventually they
make a map of their empire which is as large as the empire and coincides
point for point with the empire.

Jeremy