16  Conclusion

You are reading the work-in-progress of this report. This chapter is currently a dumping ground for ideas, and I don’t recommend reading it.

16.1 Limitations

All models are wrong, but some are useful. (Box, 1979)

All models are simplifications of reality and can produce false impressions of causality. A great example of this is the geocentric epicycle model used in the past to explain the movement of planets.

We were careful to build an evidence-based causal model while developing the ABM. However, it’s important to note that some of the assumptions may not hold in the real world. The good thing is that we can test those assumptions and improve the model over time.

Box, G. E. P. (1979). Robustness in the strategy of scientific model building. In R. L. Launer & G. N. Wilkinson (Eds.), Robustness in statistics (pp. 201–236). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-438150-6.50018-2