There’s a new book out by David Weinberger called “Too Big to Know” — no I haven’t read it… should I?
That’s a choice I have to make. Here’s a quote from an excerpt of the book:
Models this complex — whether of cellular biology, the weather, the economy, even highway traffic — often fail us, because the world is more complex than our models can capture. But sometimes they can predict accurately how the system will behave.
If the system is a supposed to make electricity, then obviously we can try to “figure out” if it indeed makes electricity…. — but what if the system ought instead to be optimized to prevent cancer?
If the same system can be configured to either produce electricity or to prevent cancer, which one should we measure? And what if our measurement apparatus causes depression in butterflies, causing them to no longer flap their wings, thereby changing weather patterns leading to flash floods across much of Asia?
Hurray for systems — they give computers something to do! 
