The Electronic Oracle: Computer Models and Social Decisions

by Donella H. Meadows

An in-depth analysis of the strengths and limitations of computer models in helping solve social, economic and political problems, using nine recent models as examples. Addressing the growing disillusionment with models among researchers and policymakers, the authors discuss what has been done and what still needs to be done to make modeling a more viable and realistic analytical tool.

462 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1985

About the author

Donella H. "Dana" Meadows was a pioneering American environmental scientist, teacher, and writer. She was educated in science, receiving a B.A. in chemistry from Carleton College in 1963, and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard in 1968. After a year-long trip with her husband, Dennis Meadows, from England to Sri Lanka and back, she became, along with him, a research fellow at MIT, as a member of a team in the department created by Jay Forrester, the inventor of system dynamics as well as the principle of magnetic data storage for computers. She taught at Dartmouth College for 29 years, beginning in 1972.