Up, up and away
Page 50
Abstract
In 1961, Jay Forrester introduced economists, management scientists and other social scientists to a new methodology for studying the behavior of dynamic systems, a methodology which he called Industrial Dynamics. Following closely on the heels of Industrial Dynamics was Urban Dynamics, which purported to analyze the nature of urban problems, their cases, and possible solution to these problems in terms of interactions among components of urban systems. More recently, Forrester has come forth with World Dynamics. We and the inhabitants of the other planets in our universe are now anxiously awaiting the publication of Universe Dynamics, a volume which is to be sponsored by the Club of Olympus, God, the Pope, Buddha, Mohammed, and the spiritual leaders of several other major religions of this world and the universe. Not unlike World Dynamics and other books by Jay Forrester, Universe Dynamics will be characterized by a number of distinct features. These features will be summarized in this paper.
In this presentation we shall comment on the methodology used by Forrester in World Dynamics as well as the methodology which is being set forth by his disciples who publish The Limits of Growth and the other people involved in the Club of Rome project. We shall address ourselves to the whole question of the feasibility of constructing models of the entire world and to model structures alternative to the one set forth by Forrester, et al.
It is first necessary to consider what possible objectives one might have in trying to prove programs correct, since different correctness criteria can be relevant to any particular program, especially when the program is to be used for numerical computation. Then it will be shown that careful structuring, along with the judicious use of assertions, can help one to organize proofs of correctness. Good language facilities are needed for the structuring, while assertions help make specific the details of the proof.
Examples from linear algebra, differential equations and other areas will be used to illustrate these ideas. The importance of language facilities will be emphasized, and implications for Computer Science curricula will be pointed out. A useful analogy with proofs of theorems in mathematics and the relevance of this analogy to certification procedures for computer programs will be discussed.
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Published In
June 1973
936 pages
ISBN:9781450379168
DOI:10.1145/1499586
Copyright © 1973 ACM.
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]
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- AFIPS: American Federation of Information Processing Societies
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Association for Computing Machinery
New York, NY, United States
Publication History
Published: 04 June 1973
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