Models as implementations of a theory, rather than simulations: Dancing to a different drummer.
Robots, as well as software agents, can be of use in biology as implementations of a theory rather than as simulations of specific real world target systems. Such implementations generate hypotheses rather than representing them. Their behavior is not predicted, but rather observed, and is not expected to duplicate that of a target system. Scientific knowledge is gained through the testing of generated hypotheses.
Franklin
Stan
S
Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152 franklin@memphis.edu http://www.msci.memphis.edu/~franklin.