Computer Simulation, Rhetoric, and the Scientific Imagination : How Virtual Evidence Shapes Science in the Making and in the News

Computer simulations help advance climatology, astrophysics, and other scientific disciplines. They are also at the crux of several high-profile cases of science in the news. How do simulation scientists, with little or no direct observations, make decisions about what to represent? What is the nature of simulated evidence, and how do we evaluate its strength? Aimee Kendall Roundtree suggests answers in Computer Simulation, Rhetoric, and the Scientific Imagination . She interprets simulations in the sciences by uncovering the argumentative strategies that underpin the production and dissemination of simulated findings. She also explains how subjective and social influences do not diminish simulations' virtue or power to represent the real thing. Along the way, Roundtree situates computer simulations within the scientific imagination alongside paradoxes, thought experiments, and metaphors. A cogent rhetorical analysis, Computer Simulation, Rhetoric, and the Scientific Imagination engages scholars of the rhetoric of science, technology, and new and digital media, but it is also accessible to the general public interested in debates over hurricane preparedness and climate change. Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of Figures 10 List of Tables 12 Acknowledgments 14 1 Why Computer Simulations Need Rhetorical Intervention 16 2 The Rhetorical Situation of Simulations 24 3 Simulations and the Scientific Imagination 34 4 Rhetorical Strategies of Simulated Evidence 54 5 Social Dimensions of Simulation Meaning 82 6 The Rhetoric of Simulation in the News 100 Conclusion 120 Bibliography 132 Index 142 The book investigates the rhetorical nature of scientific computer simulations, and it discusses the implications of those rhetorical strategies for how we understand, use and evaluate simulated evidence in the real world.