As part of the Environmental Observatory initiative of the National Science Foundation several folks published a white paper on "Grand Challenges of the Future for Environmental Modeling." The white paper sets out thirteen Grand Challenges on the future of environmental modeling. The first challenge, which the paper lays down as an overarching challenge, addresses how models relate to the growth of knowledge:
"How does knowledge grow through the deliberate development, evaluation, and use of a computational model? What, in fact, should be a proper, sound philosophical basis for employing models, be design, in this context of basic scientific discovery; and how can the community of environmental modelers contribute to the construction of these philosophical foundations?"
The paper presents this challenge in terms of a three-element characterization of knowledge from the American philosopher Lewis. The three elements are:
1) the given data,
2) a set of concepts, and
3) acts which interpret data in terms of concepts.
The paper mentions how the first of these concepts, applies to environmental observatories, namely creating first class data sets. One way of looking at the second and third elements are theories of physical processes and computational models that simulate those theories.
Another way of looking at these three elements is in terms of knowledge modeling. These three elements translate to data, ontological concepts about environmental modeling, and knowledge models of processes involved in environmental modeling.
Friday, June 24, 2016
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Devaluing Temptation
There was an interesting article on CNN that I read today. It was a brief look into a small amount of research that has been done on why some people cheat on their spouses. The main conclusion was that some folks (in the article it states that people who are in a happy relationship) will tend to "devalue" the potential relationships with people outside of their happy relationship and thus be inherently less likely to cheat on their spouses.
This struck me as an interesting and important phenomenon: the same temptations are viewed, and valued, differently by different people based on their personal valuation of the temptation. Thus person A can be more susceptible to accept the change in situation and succumb to the temptation while person B would be less likely. This would in part be because person A and person B value the results of the temptation differently. The article noted that this is usually a subtle and unconscious effect.
I thought I'd do a bit of a dive into research on the driving factors that influence how temptations are valued. If we can influence how people value temptations, we can influence their choices. If we can influence teenagers, young men and young women, to make better choices, we can make a life-long impact. Thus understanding how to influence personal valuations of temptations is quite important.
I googled around and found this 1989 scientific article by Dennis Johnson and Caryl Rusbult in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology on devaluing temptation, specifically on relationships. The authors did three interesting studies of dating relationships, both actual and potential. There are several interesting results of their experiments. One of the key results is that, while relationship satisfaction is correlated with relationship commitment, relationship commitment is actually a stronger driving variable for devaluing temptation than is relationship satisfaction. This leads to the conclusion that, to strengthen relationships, one would need to work on strengthening the commitment to the relationship, meaning how actually committed someone is to maintaining the relationship. The level of personal commitment is actually more important than the benefits gained from maintaining the current relationship. Clearly, the benefits from the current relationship weigh in on the commitment (the two are, after all, correlated.) This correlation also implies that the level of commitment influences the satisfaction and benefits from the relationship. However, of the two variables, personal commitment is the more important driver.
If we assume that we can use inductive logic and extrapolate these results to other temptations, this has some interesting and important ramifications. First, activities that focus on developing personal commitment to principles and practices are stronger activities than those that focus on benefits. For example, activities that encourage people to develop a personal commitment to not smoke would be more influential than those that focus only on the benefits of not smoking. Secondly, it is helpful, even needful, to reinforce the personal commitment with the benefits (the two are correlated after all).
So, how do we help develop and reinforce personal commitments for good so that we devalue temptations?
My hypothesis is that it is an active process with many parts to it that reinforce each other. First, we need to be exposed to the concept, activity, or principle. We then judge whether or not the new concept, activity, or principle fits with our core values. Then, as the prophet Alma taught, we give it a test. We listen, we follow, we act. From there we have built the beginnings of a commitment. One key part, however, is that we need to actually state our commitment, verbally. This act of stating our commitment actually engages more of our emotional center. As Boyd K. Packer taught, "A testimony is found in the bearing of it." From there, we continue to test and continue to state our commitments in a cycle that continues.
Assuming my hypothesis is correct, and I have seen this pattern throughout my life, there are a few conclusions about how to strengthen commitments to righteous principles, activities, and practices.
1) we need to be exposed to examples of righteous living and positive relationships (see Moroni 7:22-25),
2) we need frequent opportunities to express our commitments to righteous principles, practices, and activities,
3) we need to make opportunities to express our commitments to those whose relationships we value,
4) we need to reinforce the recognition of benefits we receive from other's commitments to us and the benefits we receive of our commitment to them, and
5) we need to reinforce the recognition of benefits we and others receive from righteous living.
The potential benefit from applying these principles is that we will enhance our natural devaluation of temptations until we, like Captain Moroni, Alma the Younger, and the Sons of Mosiah, have become a people over whom Satan has no power.
Points to Ponder: how should this knowledge impact our personal prayers, e.g. Moroni 7:48?
This struck me as an interesting and important phenomenon: the same temptations are viewed, and valued, differently by different people based on their personal valuation of the temptation. Thus person A can be more susceptible to accept the change in situation and succumb to the temptation while person B would be less likely. This would in part be because person A and person B value the results of the temptation differently. The article noted that this is usually a subtle and unconscious effect.
I thought I'd do a bit of a dive into research on the driving factors that influence how temptations are valued. If we can influence how people value temptations, we can influence their choices. If we can influence teenagers, young men and young women, to make better choices, we can make a life-long impact. Thus understanding how to influence personal valuations of temptations is quite important.
I googled around and found this 1989 scientific article by Dennis Johnson and Caryl Rusbult in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology on devaluing temptation, specifically on relationships. The authors did three interesting studies of dating relationships, both actual and potential. There are several interesting results of their experiments. One of the key results is that, while relationship satisfaction is correlated with relationship commitment, relationship commitment is actually a stronger driving variable for devaluing temptation than is relationship satisfaction. This leads to the conclusion that, to strengthen relationships, one would need to work on strengthening the commitment to the relationship, meaning how actually committed someone is to maintaining the relationship. The level of personal commitment is actually more important than the benefits gained from maintaining the current relationship. Clearly, the benefits from the current relationship weigh in on the commitment (the two are, after all, correlated.) This correlation also implies that the level of commitment influences the satisfaction and benefits from the relationship. However, of the two variables, personal commitment is the more important driver.
If we assume that we can use inductive logic and extrapolate these results to other temptations, this has some interesting and important ramifications. First, activities that focus on developing personal commitment to principles and practices are stronger activities than those that focus on benefits. For example, activities that encourage people to develop a personal commitment to not smoke would be more influential than those that focus only on the benefits of not smoking. Secondly, it is helpful, even needful, to reinforce the personal commitment with the benefits (the two are correlated after all).
So, how do we help develop and reinforce personal commitments for good so that we devalue temptations?
My hypothesis is that it is an active process with many parts to it that reinforce each other. First, we need to be exposed to the concept, activity, or principle. We then judge whether or not the new concept, activity, or principle fits with our core values. Then, as the prophet Alma taught, we give it a test. We listen, we follow, we act. From there we have built the beginnings of a commitment. One key part, however, is that we need to actually state our commitment, verbally. This act of stating our commitment actually engages more of our emotional center. As Boyd K. Packer taught, "A testimony is found in the bearing of it." From there, we continue to test and continue to state our commitments in a cycle that continues.
Assuming my hypothesis is correct, and I have seen this pattern throughout my life, there are a few conclusions about how to strengthen commitments to righteous principles, activities, and practices.
1) we need to be exposed to examples of righteous living and positive relationships (see Moroni 7:22-25),
2) we need frequent opportunities to express our commitments to righteous principles, practices, and activities,
3) we need to make opportunities to express our commitments to those whose relationships we value,
4) we need to reinforce the recognition of benefits we receive from other's commitments to us and the benefits we receive of our commitment to them, and
5) we need to reinforce the recognition of benefits we and others receive from righteous living.
The potential benefit from applying these principles is that we will enhance our natural devaluation of temptations until we, like Captain Moroni, Alma the Younger, and the Sons of Mosiah, have become a people over whom Satan has no power.
Points to Ponder: how should this knowledge impact our personal prayers, e.g. Moroni 7:48?
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