Why Mathematical Computer Simulations Are the New Laboratory for Scientists

Subst Use Misuse. 2015;50(8-9):1058-78. doi: 10.3109/10826084.2015.1012934.

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a new powerful scientific paradigm to understand natural and cultural processes. This new paradigm is based on two fundamental keywords: Data, as representative sample of the process we need to analyze, and Artificial Adaptive Systems, as a new mathematical technique able to make explicit the nonlinearity embedded in the process. We will try to make explicit these concepts analyzing how the distribution of events into the physical space may reveal the hidden logic connecting these events together.

Keywords: artificial adaptive systems; geographic profiling; neural networks.

MeSH terms

  • Africa, Western / epidemiology
  • Algorithms
  • Brazil / epidemiology
  • Computer Simulation*
  • Crime / statistics & numerical data
  • Data Mining
  • Dengue / epidemiology
  • Epidemics
  • Geographic Mapping
  • Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / epidemiology
  • Humans
  • Mathematical Computing
  • Neural Networks, Computer*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Research*