The map is not the territory: Remarks about simulation

Online-Presentation by Klaus Kornwachs on 5 June 2023, 20:00 CEST (Berlin time)

Abstract: Sometimes the rationale for “Bionically” driven design of technology is seen as a kind of transfer from technical models to models of natural processes and structures, particularly in biology.  This is true, of course, because historically and methodologically technology – as a mode of cognition – is older than science. But I would like to turn the tables and show that the “imitation” of nature, especially in biology, is rather a simulation of technical functional hypothesis, for which a scientific understanding is no longer necessary. The key to distinguish between structural similarity and functional similarity, which can be generated in a simulation. The wrong conclusions arise when one tries to deduce from structure similarity to function similarity and vice versa. And it becomes difficult when, data-based models are created on pattern recognition and learning systems, which then are used as the basis for a simulation. Here, misinterpretation of the results is possible because they cannot be evaluated within a proper context.

Klaus Kornwachs is one of the most prolific philosophers of technology in Germany. Till 2011, he held the chair for “Technikphilosophie” at the BTU Cottbus. He was guest professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economy (BUTE), at the Technical University of Vienna and the Technical University of Dalian, China. Since 1990 he is Honorary Professor for philosophy at the Humboldt Centre for Humanities at the University of Ulm and since 2013 Honorary Professor at the China Intelligent Urbanization Co-Creation Center of the Tongji University, Shanghai.

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OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Ludger Jansen (April 27, 2023). The map is not the territory: Remarks about simulation. Philosophy of Biomimetics. Retrieved February 15, 2026 from https://biomimetics.hypotheses.org/645


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