(2024-03-11) Arbesman The Spreadsheet Is A Simulation Machine

Samuel Arbesman: The Spreadsheet is a Simulation Machine. In 1984, a few years into the spreadsheet revolution, the tech journalist Steven Levy, wrote a long and fascinating article about this genre of software. Not only is this article a time capsule of computing history, it also gives one a sense for how people were thinking about spreadsheets even then

Creating and modifying a spreadsheet is an act of world-building

spreadsheets mean you don’t just have to look at a static chart or graph, you can tweak the parameters of a system and see how it responds or bites back.

because functions can be embedded within spreadsheet cells, this large digital grid can essentially become a small, constantly updating computer

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, I spent an inordinate amount of time playing with a spreadsheet developed by scientists at the University of Colorado that focused on the aerosol spread of virus particles

Due to their power, their transparency, and their relative ease of play, spreadsheets are found everywhere, from small businesses and hedge funds to biology laboratories

one of their key powers is as a mechanism for thinking about the future. According to the computer scientist Alan Kay, the creators of VisiCalc—the first spreadsheet—were actually surprised that users were not just analyzing the past but trying to predict the future

But perhaps we should not be surprised at all. This is a deep and profound urge within humans: imagining and simulating and worrying about what is to come.

I recently finished reading How Life Works by Philip Ball and it is a gem of a book. So many insights about how we might really think about biology. Well worth a read. I wrote a bit for the FLUX Review newsletter about the book:

Here are some links worth checking out that touch on the complex systems of our world (both built and natural):