Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] simulation vs emulation vs representation

Roger, Ramon and Paul,

from the dictionary, "emulation" literally means something which "matches or surpasses typically by imitation", and derives from Latin aemulat- 'rivaled, equaled,' from the verb aemulari, from aemulus 'rival.'. "Imitation" is from Latin imitatio(n-), from the verb imitari, which interestingly shares the same source of "image" (which is not a side meaning). "Simulation" is from Latin simulat- 'copied, represented,' from the verb simulare, from similis 'like' (there are some accents in the latin words I didn't put).

Imitation, emulation, modelization, simulation, visualization, representation..., maybe it could be interesting go through the similarities and differences. And I think it would be interestng studying the simulation techniques too, focusing on *how* they represent and not only on *what* they represent, it could give new insights.

Finally, in the above definitions there is always a dimension of competition, defy, and, secondly, simulation, imitation and emulation's meanings are two-faceted, being postive or negative.

Best,

Pier Luigi


Il giorno 01/feb/2010, alle ore 14.45, roger malina ha scritto:

> ramon
>
> thanks for the example of molecular dynamics-
> i guess i would distinguish three sub categories
>
> - representation/ eg a walt dysney cartoon that elicits human response like
> the physical phenomenon but the animation does not encode any physics
>
> - emulation- where the representation behaves like the physical phenomenon
> but does not encode the same physical assumptions ( eg a computer can
> emulate old software but runs on new computer chips and emulates the way the
> old chips behaved)
>
> - simulation- where the software system encodes the best scientific laws
> available to enable a system to behave like the real phenomenon= many
> artificial life systems try to do this
>
> the two examples i gave on stellar evolution and evolution of structure of
> the universe are "simulations'= i tried to
> find out what category the molecular dynamics animation was\
> but couldnt=do you know ?
>
> i suspect that there are texts on these differences between
> represenation/emulation/simulation =maybe yasminers can point
> us to them
>
> roger
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: ramon guardans <ramon.guardans@soundplots.com>
>
>
> Thank you Roger and Avi, informative and beautiful mterial
> adding to this i would suggest
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIwu5MevZyg
>
> and other similar molecular dynamics simulations
>
>
>
>
> be well
> r

--
Pier Luigi Capucci
e-mail: plc@noemalab.org
web: http://www.noemalab.org/plc/plc.html
skype: plcapucci


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