Representations of Real-World Phenomena: Modeling as a Transdisciplinary Formative Skill and Practice

Abstract

Late in the summer of 2013, Elon Musk set the Internet ablaze with a “napkin sketch” of the Hyperloop Alpha, his futuristic vision for mass transit (Christensen, 2013). Musk backed his rudimentary doodle with a 57-page memo where he aimed to keep “numbers to a minimum and avoid formulas and jargon” and apologized, “in advance for [his] loose use of the language and imperfect analogies” (Musk, 2013). The memo is a thorough, visually stunning and inspiring proposal for a high-speed mass transit line between Los Angeles and San Francisco wherein passengers travel at speeds up to 800 miles per hour above already existing highways. As The New Yorker magazine noted, “Musk has put forth a plausible idea that doesn’t require yet-to-be-developed technologies” (Friend, 2013). The memo and it’s 25+ visual sketches, drawings, and figures is, however, the blueprint for something much more impressive than a regional transit line. Instead, the memo presents a promising, innovative, and potentially transformative model that may completely redefine mass transit in the twenty-first century (Figs. 7.1 and 7.2).

Today’s scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.

—Nikola Tesla.

No, wait guys. Listen. You guys are so talented and imaginative …but you can’t work as a team. I’m just a construction worker, but when I have a plan and we were working together, we could build a skyscraper. Now you guys are Master Builders. Just imagine what you could do if you did that! …You could save the universe!

—Emmet, The Lego Movie.

This chapter is edited and derived from the following article, which originally appeared in the journal TechTrends (with permission from the publisher and editor). With thanks and credit to the Deep-Play Research Group and authors as noted: Henriksen, D. Terry, C.A., Mishra, P., & the Deep-Play Research Group (2015). Modeling as a trans-disciplinary formative skill and practice. TechTrends (59)2. p. 4–9.