Understanding the Natural and the Artificial Worlds

Abstract

This chapter contains sections titled: The Artificial, The Environment as Mold, The Artifact as "Interface", Functional Explanation, Functional Description and Synthesis, Limits of Adaptation, Understanding by Simulating, Techniques of Simulation, Simulation as a Source of New Knowledge, Simulation of Poorly Understood Systems, The Computer as Artifact, Computers as Abstract Objects, Computers as Empirical Objects, Computers and Thought, Symbol Systems: Rational Artifacts, Basic Capabilities of Symbol Systems, Intelligence as Computation, Economics: Abstract Rationality