On Reality (2000-2009)

"To say that a thing is imaginary is not to dispose of it in the realm of mind, for the imagination, or the image making faculty, is a very important part of our mental functioning. An image formed by the imagination is a reality from the point of view of psychology; it is quite true that it has no physical existence, but are we going to limit reality to that which is material? We shall be far out of our reckoning if we do, for mental images are potent things, and although they do not actually exist on the physical plane, they influence it far more than most people suspect." (Dion Fortune," Spiritualism and Occultism", 2000)

"A model is an imitation of reality and a mathematical model is a particular form of representation. We should never forget this and get so distracted by the model that we forget the real application which is driving the modelling. In the process of model building we are translating our real world problem into an equivalent mathematical problem which we solve and then attempt to interpret. We do this to gain insight into the original real world situation or to use the model for control, optimization or possibly safety studies." (Ian T Cameron & Katalin Hangos, "Process Modelling and Model Analysis", 2001)

"A symbol is a mental representation regarding the internal reality referring to its object by a convention and produced by the conscious interpretation of a sign. In contrast to signals, symbols may be used every time if the receiver has the corresponding representation. Symbols also relate to feelings and thus give access not only to information but also to the communicator’s motivational and emotional state. The use of symbols makes it possible for the organism using it to evoke in the receiver the same response it evokes in himself. To communicate with symbols is to use a language." (Lars Skyttner, "General Systems Theory: Ideas and Applications", 2001)

"Formulation of a mathematical model is the first step in the process of analyzing the behaviour of any real system. However, to produce a useful model, one must first adopt a set of simplifying assumptions which have to be relevant in relation to the physical features of the system to be modelled and to the specific information one is interested in. Thus, the aim of modelling is to produce an idealized description of reality, which is both expressible in a tractable mathematical form and sufficiently close to reality as far as the physical mechanisms of interest are concerned." (Francois Axisa, "Discrete Systems" Vol. I, 2001)

"Our view of reality is like a map with which to negotiate the terrain of life. If the map is true and accurate, we will generally know how to get there. If the map is false and inaccurate, we generally will be lost." (M Scott Peck, "Wisdom from the Road Less Traveled", 2001)

"A model isolates one or a few causal connections, mechanisms, or processes, to the exclusion of other contributing or interfering factors - while in the actual world, those other factors make their effects felt in what actually happens. Models may seem true in the abstract, and are false in the concrete. The key issue is about whether there is a bridge between the two, the abstract and the concrete, such that a simple model can be relied on as a source of relevantly truthful information about the complex reality." (Uskali Mäki, "Fact and Fiction in Economics: Models, Realism and Social Construction", 2002)

"A conceptual model is one which reflects reality by placing words which are concepts into the model in the same way that the model aeroplane builder puts wings, a fuselage, and a cockpit together." (Lynn Basford & ?Oliver Slevin, "Theory and Practice of Nursing: An Integrated Approach to Caring Practice", 2003)

"What appear to be the most valuable aspects of the theoretical physics we have are the mathematical descriptions which enable us to predict events. These equations are, we would argue, the only realities we can be certain of in physics; any other ways we have of thinking about the situation are visual aids or mnemonics which make it easier for beings with our sort of macroscopic experience to use and remember the equations." (Celia Green, "The Lost Cause", 2003)

"I often told the fanatics of realism that there is no such thing as realism in art: it only exists in the mind of the observer. Art is a symbol, a thing conjuring up reality in our mental image. That is why I don't see any contradiction between abstract and figurative art either." (Antoni Tàpies, "Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003", 2004)

"Scientists often invent words to fill the holes in their understanding. These words are meant as conveniences until real understanding can be found. […] Words such as dimension and field and infinity […] are not descriptions of reality, yet we accept them as such because everyone is sure someone else knows what the words mean." (Scott Adams, "God's Debris: A Thought Experiment", 2004)

"Stock market bubbles don't grow out of thin air. They have a solid basis in reality - but reality as distorted by a misconception. Under normal conditions misconceptions are self-correcting, and the markets tend toward some kind of equilibrium. Occasionally, a misconception is reinforced by a trend prevailing in reality, and that is when a boom-bust process gets under way. Eventually the gap between reality and its false interpretation becomes unsustainable, and the bubble bursts." (George Soros, [interview] 2004)

"A model is a simplification or approximation of reality and hence will not reflect all of reality. […] Box noted that ‘all models are wrong, but some are useful’. While a model can never be ‘truth’, a model might be ranked from very useful, to useful, to somewhat useful to, finally, essentially useless." (Kenneth P Burnham & David R Anderson, "Model Selection and Multimodel Inference: A Practical Information-Theoretic Approach" 2nd Ed., 2005)

"Elegance and simplicity should remain important criteria in judging mathematics, but the applicability and consequences of a result are also important, and sometimes these criteria conflict. I believe that some fundamental theorems do not admit simple elegant treatments, and the proofs of such theorems may of necessity be long and complicated. Our standards of rigor and beauty must be sufficiently broad and realistic to allow us to accept and appreciate such results and their proofs. As mathematicians we will inevitably use such theorems when it is necessary in the practice our trade; our philosophy and aesthetics should reflect this reality." (Michael Aschbacher, "Highly complex proofs and implications", 2005)

"[...] a single thing may elicit several appearances, various conceptual models of it, or several plans of action for it, depending on the subject’s abilities and interests." (Mario Bunge, "Chasing Reality: Strife over Realism", 2006)

"[…] the 'reality' that we perceive is based on mental models in which things don't usually change their shapes or disappear, despite their changing appearances. We mainly react to what we expect - and tend to represent the things that we see as though they remain the same as we move atomic." (Marvin Minsky, "The Emotion Machine: Commonsense thinking, artificial intelligence, and the future of the human mind", 2006)

"According to mental model theory, human reasoning relies on the construction of integrated mental representations of the information that is given in the reasoning problem's premises. These integrated representations are the mental models. A mental model is a mental representation that captures what is common to all the different ways in which the premises can be interpreted. It represents in 'small scale' how 'reality' could be -  according to what is stated in the premises of a reasoning problem. Mental models, though, must not be confused with images. A mental model often forms the basis of one or more visual images, but some of them represent situations that cannot be visualized. Instead, mental models are often likened to diagrams since, as with diagrams, their structure is analogous to the structure of the states of affairs they represent." (Carsten Held et al, "Mental Models and the Mind", 2006)

"Although fiction is not fact, paradoxically we need some fictions, particularly mathematical ideas and highly idealized models, to describe, explain, and predict facts.  This is not because the universe is mathematical, but because our brains invent or use refined and law-abiding fictions, not only for intellectual pleasure but also to construct conceptual models of reality." (Mario Bunge, "Chasing Reality: Strife over Realism", 2006)

"Nothing resembles reality less than the photograph. Nothing resembles substance less than its shadow. To convey the meaning of something substantial you have to use not a shadow but a sign, not the limitation but the image. The image is a new and different reality, and of course it does not convey an impression of some object, but the mind of the subject; and that is something else again." (Thomas Merton, "Angelic Mistakes: The Art of Thomas Merton", 2006)

"Your mental models shape the way you see the world. They help you to quickly make sense of the noises that filter in from outside, but they can also limit your ability to see the true picture. [...] We eventually lose all awareness that these ‘models’ are in fact internal illusions. We accept them as external reality and act on them as if they were. If they are good models, in most circumstances they more than adequately permit the mind to handle external reality. But here a danger creeps in. When the world changes in important ways, we can find ourselves with a model that is completely irrelevant to the current situation. We find ourselves wearing our street clothes when we are thrown off the deck of a ship. What we need at that point is a wet suit and lifejacket." (Colin Cook & Yoram R Wind, "The Power of Impossible Thinking: Transform the Business of Your Life and the Life of Your Business", 2006)

"A Black Swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. […] The Black Swan idea is based on the structure of randomness in empirical reality. [...] the Black Swan is what we leave out of simplification." (Nassim N Taleb, "The Black Swan", 2007)

"Mathematics is about truth: discovering the truth, knowing the truth, and communicating the truth to others. It would be a great mistake to discuss mathematics without talking about its relation to the truth, for truth is the essence of mathematics. In its search for the purity of truth, mathematics has developed its own language and methodologies - its own way of paring down reality to an inner essence and capturing that essence in subtle patterns of thought. Mathematics is a way of using the mind with the goal of knowing the truth, that is, of obtaining certainty." (William Byers, "How Mathematicians Think", 2007)

"Networks may also be important in terms of view. Many models assume that agents are bunched together on the head of a pin, whereas the reality is that most agents exist within a topology of connections to other agents, and such connections may have an important influence on behavior. […] Models that ignore networks, that is, that assume all activity takes place on the head of a pin, can easily suppress some of the most interesting aspects of the world around us. In a pinhead world, there is no segregation, and majority rule leads to complete conformity - outcomes that, while easy to derive, are of little use." (John H Miller & Scott E Page, "Complex Adaptive Systems", 2007)

"Our inner working models, therefore, function as interpretation schemes, on the basis of which we organize our experiences. But, such schemes also distort reality in the direction of our pattern of expectations. In short: such working models organize and screen our experiences. This means that such an inner working model organizes and colours our perception of things in such a way that it can be extremely stimulating but can also sometimes slow us down considerably." (M H M de Wolf, "Freud and Mahler", 2007)

"We tend to form mental models that are simpler than reality; so if we create represented models that are simpler than the actual implementation model, we help the user achieve a better understanding. […] Understanding how software actually works always helps someone to use it, but this understanding usually comes at a significant cost. One of the most significant ways in which computers can assist human beings is by putting a simple face on complex processes and situations. As a result, user interfaces that are consistent with users’ mental models are vastly superior to those that are merely reflections of the implementation model." (Alan Cooper et al,  "About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design", 2007)

"Geometrical truth is (as we now speak) synthetic: it states facts about the world. Such truths are not ordinary truths but essential truths, giving the reality of the empirical world in which they are imperfect embodied." (Fred Wilson, "The External World and Our Knowledge of It", 2008)

"Zero is the mathematically defined numerical function of nothingness. It is used not for an evasion but for an apprehension of reality. Zero is by far the most interesting number among all the others: It is a symbol for what is not there. It is an emptiness that increases any number it's added to. Zero is an inexhaustible and indispensable paradox. Zero is the only number which can be divided by every other number. Zero is also only number which can divide no other number. It seems zero is also the most debated number in mathematics. We know that mathematicians are involved in heated philosophical and logical discussions around the issues of zero: Can we divide a number by zero? Is the result of this division infinity or not? Is zero a positive or a negative number? Is it even or is it odd?" (Fahri Karakas, "Reflections on zero and zero-centered spirituality in organizations", 2008)

"How are we to explain the contrast between the matter-of-fact way in which v-1 and other imaginary numbers are accepted today and the great difficulty they posed for learned mathematicians when they first appeared on the scene? One possibility is that mathematical intuitions have evolved over the centuries and people are generally more willing to see mathematics as a matter of manipulating symbols according to rules and are less insistent on interpreting all symbols as representative of one or another aspect of physical reality. Another, less self-congratulatory possibility is that most of us are content to follow the computational rules we are taught and do not give a lot of thought to rationales." (Raymond S Nickerson, "Mathematical Reasoning: Patterns, Problems, Conjectures, and Proofs", 2009)

"In order to deal with these phenomena, we abstract from details and attempt to concentrate on the larger picture - a particular set of features of the real world or the structure that underlies the processes that lead to the observed outcomes. Models are such abstractions of reality. Models force us to face the results of the structural and dynamic assumptions that we have made in our abstractions." (Bruce Hannon and Matthias Ruth, "Dynamic Modeling of Diseases and Pests", 2009)

"Philosophers have sometimes made a distinction between analytic and synthetic truths. Analytic truths are not verified by observation; true analytic statements are tautologies and are true by virtue of the definitions of their terms and their logical structure. Synthetic truths relate to the material world; the truth of synthetic statements depends on their correspondence to how physical reality works. Mathematics, according to this distinction, deals exclusively with analytic truths. Its statements are all tautologies and are (analytically) true by virtue of their adherence to formal rules of construction." (Raymond S Nickerson, "Mathematical Reasoning: Patterns, Problems, Conjectures, and Proofs", 2009)

"We all use mental models every day. Our minds do not contain real economic or social systems. Instead, they contain representations - models - of reality. We use these models in all aspects of decision-making. Being explicitly aware of our mental models can help us in understanding why we make the decisions we do and how we can improve our decision-making processes. If everyone’s mental models are brought to light in the context of an organization, we can begin to see where, how, and why the models diverge. This is the first step in building a shared understanding within an organization. As long as mental models remain hidden, they constitute an obstacle to building shared understanding." (Akhilesh Bajaj & Stanislaw Wrycza, "Systems Analysis and Design for Advanced Modeling Methods: Best Practices", 2009)