linearprogramming

Last boosts: since this trend has only accelerated, I figured I'd re-share.

I was reviewing some older notes of mine from the event. This one stood out at the time and still does:

Meghan Wiessner and Nathan Ensmenger talked about FORPLAN, a large linear programming model the US forestry service used to generate forest use plans. They both noted its complexity and its shortcomings, how it did not take account of local knowledge and otherwise oversimplified forestry, and how it was divisive.

If you've never come across FORPLAN I recommend looking it up (this is good if you're OK with technical reports). It went into use in late 1979 and was controversial from the beginning. It relied on (then) largescale linear programming methods to determine how to manage the US's forests. Like so many efforts before and since, it set aside expert and/or local knowledge of the domain, made horrendous miscalculations, yet was treated as if it were making divine proclamations that must be followed. One of the early critics of it started a libertarian blog called the Antiplanner to argue against government land-use planning.

#FORPLAN #planning #ForestManagement #AI #LinearProgramming