Simulation (or Computation) and its Discontents
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The document discusses Sherry Turkle's views on simulation in science, engineering, and design, emphasizing the tension between reliance on technology and skepticism about its effects on creativity and human judgment. It highlights generational anxieties, the seduction of powerful tools, and the misleading nature of computer-generated visuals, urging a critical stance towards simulation. Ultimately, it suggests that understanding arises from both engagement with and skepticism of simulation, as it shapes our perceptions and practices.
![“[The 1980s] Both critics and proponents felt the
ground shifting; the fundamentals of design
practice were being called into question. It was a
thrilling, yet confusing time.
Design is a volatile combination of the aesthetic
and the technical.
Over time, factions for and against the computer
have been replaced by individuals expressing
ambivalence about what has been gained and
lost.”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/simulationanditsdiscontents-230716033039-ed116c0d/85/Simulation-or-Computation-and-its-Discontents-10-320.jpg)
Simulation (or Computation) and its Discontents
- 1. SIMULATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS Sherry Turkle MIT Press, 2009
- 2. What does simulation want? 20+ key ideas
- 3. “These days, professionals who voice discontent about simulation in science, engineering, and design run the risk of being seen as nostalgic or committed to futile protest. The early skeptics wanted to preserve the “sacred spaces”, places where technology might disrupt sacrosanct traditions linked to core values.”
- 4. “Twenty years ago, professionals in science and design flirted with simulations even as they were suspicious of it. Today, they are wary but wed to it. An older generation fears that young scientists, engineers, and designers are “drunk with code”. From both sides of a generational divide, there is anxiety that in simulation, something important slips away. Attitudes towards simulation do not neatly sort by generation.”
- 5. “Simulation makes itself easy to love and difficult to doubt”
- 6. (By the way, Turkle’s simulation I think today applies more broadly to computation and can be useful when thinking about AI, VR, ChatGPT, etc) R.S.
- 7. “The more powerful our tools become, the harder it is to imagine the world without them”
- 8. “Professional life requires that one live with the tension of using technology and remembering to distrust it”
- 9. “Screen versions of reality: We accept them because they are compelling and present themselves as expressions of our most up-to-date tools. We accept them because we have them. They become practical because they are available. So, even when we have reason to doubt that screen realities are true, we are tempted to use them all the same.”
- 10. “[The 1980s] Both critics and proponents felt the ground shifting; the fundamentals of design practice were being called into question. It was a thrilling, yet confusing time. Design is a volatile combination of the aesthetic and the technical. Over time, factions for and against the computer have been replaced by individuals expressing ambivalence about what has been gained and lost.”
- 11. “Computer drawings make all buildings look as though they have been fully considered, designed down to the last detail. This creates an illusion of commitment. Often, when designers object to a computer system, they are really objecting to how the machine forces them to abdicate control over their design.”
- 12. “I didn’t become an architect to sit in front of a computer” -Howard Ramsen
- 13. “In a Spring 2005 MIT workshop on simulation and visualization, an MIT architecture professor trained during the Athena years contrasts designers and technologists: “I’m absolutely skeptical. Can those two mentalities exist in the same brain? I haven’t met the person yet who is a designer and a programmer.” An MIT student at the workshop concurs by distinguishing between design logic and computer logic, complaining that the codification intrinsic to computer logic inhibits his creative thinking.”
- 14. “Across the professions, software has become increasingly uniform and black-boxed, even as there is demand for nonstandardized tools that can accommodate users with different intellectual styles”
- 15. “The fancier the computer system, the more you start to believe that what comes out of the machine is just how it should be. It is just a visceral thing. At a certain point, the graphics are so spectacular, the sketches so precise, that possibilities can feel like inevitabilities.”
- 16. “In digital format, even preliminary ideas look finished”
- 17. “In simulation, it often turns out that the first idea wants to be the last idea. The fine resolution of screen drawing is more likely to persuade people to accept it as a fait accompli.”
- 19. “A critical stance toward simulation enforces modesty. Computer precision is wrongly taken for perfection. As technology becomes more and more sexy, the problem is that we get lured into it, the seduction, and we actually come up with what we think are good displays, but actually they’re bad”
- 20. “Simulations are never right. They’re all wrong. Forget it. That’s it. They’re wrong. Guaranteed. There is more entropy in the real world than there is in your computer.” Adam Luft He means that they are incomplete. Luft does not see simulation as a way to see what is ‘true’, but to engage in a dialogue with code.”
- 21. “A critical stance is no longer about vigilance to protect simulation from error. It is about living with shadows that bring us closer to the forms beyond them”
- 22. “Whitman works in an informed partnership with simulation. It generates alternate realities and enables him to do experiments that would otherwise be impossible. Whitman makes progress by chastening simulation, by increasing his understanding of what it cannot tell, and in the end, deferring to human judgment.”
- 23. “How many times have you heard the story of someone musing about a truly inspirational vision coming to them while they were staring at clouds?” –Roberta Drew
- 24. “Understanding comes out of simulation, out of discontents, and out of nowhere”
- 25. COMPUTATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS Excerpts by: Ricardo Sosa, PhD ricardo.sosa@monash.edu