Systems Theory: Melding the AI and Simulation Perspectives

The discipline of modelling and simulation (MaS) preceded artificial intelligence (AI) chronologically. Moreover, the workers in one area are typically unfamiliar with, and sometimes unsympathetic to, those in the other. One reason for this is that in MaS the formal tools tend to center around analysis and probability theory with statistics, while in AI there is extensive use of discrete mathematics of one form or another, particularly logic. Over the years however, MaS and AI developed many frameworks and perspectives that are more similar than their respective practitioners may care to admit. We will argue in this paper that these parallel developments have led to some myopia that should be overcome because techniques and insights borrowed from the other discipline can be very beneficial.