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Maybe "simulate" is the wrong word, then. Especially accurate simulation. Plotting to shop groceries is not a simulation. You create a model of the problem and

Maybe "simulate" is the wrong word, then. Especially accurate simulation. Plotting to shop groceries is not a simulation. You create a model of the problem and roughly base your solution on that. The model is based on a very large number of assumptions and a great deal of ignorance of the entirety of the process it represents. You can relatively accurately predict that when you press "OK", the dialog will close. You can maybe assume and envision a future where calling "closeDialogBox(box)" will close the dialog box. Maybe the lines in it that which simply call "box->close()" and return "STATUS_OK" can be assumed to do what you think it will do. The underlying machine code, too. The CPU, sure. In the end the whole system is beyond your control and is subject to random input like cosmic rays flipping bits, power outages, leaking caps. Before that you have the operating system, the compiler, the overall codebase, perhaps more likely sources of mental model mismatches. I certainly wouldn't draw the line of "accurate simulation" at the source code base. IMO one of our strengths as humans is that we can easily create these simplified models based on rough probabilities founded on previous experience, "gut feelings" and weighing risks and go great lengths without accurate simulation.

taeric 9y ago
I'm sympathetic to your point, but I suggest you have the wrong take here. It might have been better if people referred to modeling the system, but that ship sailed, as it were. That is, we are primarily discussing how people use that phrase in informal communication. And the you'd be surprised just how far many can take the simulations in their head.
- boomlinde 9y ago
  It's not like "simulation" is commonly used to describe one's thoughts. So your idea is that we're just arguing about some sort of hypothetical colloquial sense of the word, even though it's obviously used here in the context of comparing humans to computers?

taeric 9y ago

I'm sympathetic to your point, but I suggest you have the wrong take here. It might have been better if people referred to modeling the system, but that ship sailed, as it were. That is, we are primarily discussing how people use that phrase in informal communication. And the you'd be surprised just how far many can take the simulations in their head.

boomlinde 9y ago
It's not like "simulation" is commonly used to describe one's thoughts. So your idea is that we're just arguing about some sort of hypothetical colloquial sense of the word, even though it's obviously used here in the context of comparing humans to computers?