Data and Simulacra, toward a framework for inclusive coproduction

Abstract:

The sciences in general, and climate science in particular, increasingly rely on computer simulations to explore complicated theories and datasets. As models attain a complexity commensurate with the complexity of nature, researchers have no choice but to fall back on their empirical intuitions and methods to understand them. One consequence is that the outputs of these simulations, simulacra, can be confused for, and inadvertently used like, data collected by physical experiment or observation. These simulacra are assimilated into other computational models, used to interpret other observations, and used to justify policies without explicitly accounting for the computational and empirical lineage. When identified as such, simulacra give us examples of the multiple frames that describe our reality. Interrogating the production and interpretation of simulacra will necessitate a discussion about the interplay between science’s tools of measurement and science’s multiple representations of nature. Dominant scientific practice needs to recognize simulacra as legitimate realities in order to participate non-colonially with alternative systems of knowledge production, particularly those within the communities taking and affected by climate actions.