Modeling as the practice of representation

Abstract

One of the characteristics of being human is to model. In our history, we began with representations of animals made from natural materials, and painted on cave walls. We also made regular marks on animal bones. While the modern accounting of these products is art (animal representations) and mathematics (bone marks), a more comprehensive understanding points to modeling in both cases. We saw or imagined things, and then we made models of our experience. One could say to be human is to model. Since the inception of modeling, we created areas of knowledge and have divided things into many groups. These groups have sub-groups to where our knowledge resembles a large house with its artificial partitions. And yet, modeling is still pervasive although it differs slightly in form among these subdivisions that we now refer to as disciplines. Since modeling is ubiquitous, it serves as a basis to reframe our activities in the information age. We claim that models are natural transformers from human experience to information; to create information for object X, create a model of X. Even simplistic activities such as grabbing a drink from the refrigerator or taking a walk translate into information management and processing, made evident through modeling.