These actions are the result of experimental and predictive models and they begin
to occur at an early age. In the complex social, economic, and ecological world,
however, we cannot rely on the completely mental model for individual or especially for group action, and often we cannot afford to experiment with the system in
which we live. We must learn to simulate, to experiment, and to predict with
complex models.
In this book, we have selected the modeling software STELLA. Programming
languages such as STELLA are changing the way in which we think. They enable
each of us to focus and clarify the mental model we have of a particular phenomenon, to augment it, elaborate it and then to do something we cannot otherwise do:
to run it, to let it yield the inevitable dynamic consequences hidden in our assumptions and the structure of the model. STELLA and easy-to-use personal computers
are not the ultimate tools in this process of mind extension. However, they make the
path to freer and more powerful intellectual inquiry accessible to every student.
These are the arguments for this book on Modeling Dynamic Biological Systems.
We consider such modeling as the most important task before us. To help students
learn to extend the reach of their minds in this unfamiliar yet very powerful way is
the most important thing we can do.
Urbana, IL, USA
Bruce Hannon
Boston, MA, USA
Matthias Ruth
Preface
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