> They wind up creating simulations that just enforce their bias (because they write code that assumes their biases).
Agreed, such simulations can not be used to answer specific questions. Same thing also goes for weather / climate models, not just human economy.
> try to predict the stock market -- this is essentially what you are asking
No, it is not what they are asking. Mistake here is confusing what is called microstate and macrostate [0] in statistical mechanics.
E.g. yes you can not predict the path an individual gas molecule will take around a driving vehicle because it is a highly chaotic system [1]. And the same goes for individual stocks at a specific time. However, that does not mean that air flow simulations are not possible or useless, quite the opposite.
I assume he's talking about an agent model from his description, in which case it is exactly trying to derive the macro economy from the micro decisions.
This is a very classical approach. The idea that macro economy follows different models than the micro is somewhat modern. For example this caused a huge crisis in Keynesian economics in the 1970s where inflation models and the Phillips curve were drastically different than predictions and was a factor in the development of New Keynesian theories.
The examples you give aren't about individual micro prediction not agreeing with the macro, but that's the case you can come across in various economic theories where is there is a literal disconnect the two and correct micro equations disagree with the macro equations.
Agreed, such simulations can not be used to answer specific questions. Same thing also goes for weather / climate models, not just human economy.
> try to predict the stock market -- this is essentially what you are asking
No, it is not what they are asking. Mistake here is confusing what is called microstate and macrostate [0] in statistical mechanics.
E.g. yes you can not predict the path an individual gas molecule will take around a driving vehicle because it is a highly chaotic system [1]. And the same goes for individual stocks at a specific time. However, that does not mean that air flow simulations are not possible or useless, quite the opposite.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microstate_(statistical_mechan... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory