91-08/SFI.info
From: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson)
Subject: Santa Fe Institute Simulation Tools Workshop:  Brief Review
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 1991 18:41:03 GMT
Organization: Human Interface Technology Lab, Univ. of Wash., Seattle



	I just returned from a three-day "Simulation Tools Workshop" at 
the Santa Fe Institute, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.  There, 30 invited 
participants, including both users and interface designers, discussed 
visualization tools for complex environments.  The workshop was 
organized by Sim Labs' James Kalin. (Sim Labs produces Sim City, Sim 
Earth, and the soon-to-be-released Sim Ant).  The general conclusion of 
the workshop, despite our best attempts at integration and design, was 
that scientists doing complex computations, particularly on big 
machines, are going to remain frustrated until there are radical 
breakthroughs in both presentational technology and acceptance of this 
new technology's use.
 
	One such "breakthrough," advocated by chaos-theory mathematician 
Dr. Gottfried Mayer-Kress (UC Santa Cruz, now an SFI Fellow), is the 
virtual environment.  Mayer-Kress is doing some wonderful things in 
this regard, building virtual encyclopedias that combine sound, sight, 
and text on topics of popular as well as scientific interest.  He is 
currently preparing an installation for next year's ARS ELECTRONICA 
show in Europe.
 
	For more information about the Santa Fe Institution Simulation 
Tools Workshop (for which proceedings will soon be available), or for 
general ideas on simulation tools, you can contact James Kalin at 
 
			jfkalin@well.sf.ca.us
 
	When the proceedings of the workshop become available, I will be 
glad to summarize them more fully here.
 
	I found the Santa Fe Institute to be a remarkable institution in its 
own right, a fount of new thinking on the solution of complex problems.  
Everyone was so secure in his or her personal knowledge and competence 
that the atmosphere was totally supportive, a state of affairs which 
unfortunately does not yet grace our own nascent industry.  The one 
drawback to SFI's work is its lack of accessibility to the layperson and 
policymaker who does not possess a profound skill in mathematics.  SFI 
is remedying this situation by hiring more "interpreters" of its work, a 
strategy that can only increase the value and prestige of this unique 
intellectual "watering hole" in high desert.  For more information, you 
can send email to SFI at
 
			email@sfi.santafe.edu
 
Bob Jacobson
Moderator

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