Reconstruction Failures: Questioning Level Design

Models aim at rebuilding certain aspects of real phenomena using some given level of description, complex system science in particular endeavors at rebuilding complex high-level behavior from more simple, more reliable and better-understood “atomic” mechanisms at an allegedly lower level. Simulation-based models are frequently used, as analytical solutions are seldom available and limited to singular, possibly non-realistic hypotheses. In turn, the simulated system should correctly render the evolution of a selection of high-level stylized facts. To this end, a reductionist attitude is usually adopted; in other words, modeling efforts are focused on low-level items only — for instance, when attempting to rebuild psychological laws by iterating neural activity, the simulation relies on neuron-based properties and dynamics in order to reproduce psychological properties and dynamics, which are then traditionally said to “emerge”. Here, we intend to review and comment the appraisal of unsuccessful models and corresponding simulations, then discuss in a broader framework the epistemological consequences of failed reconstructions on model and level design.