What is the specific size of the object that we need to analyse, in which
system in the hierarchy our system is embedded in? How far spatially does that
system extend? What will be the spatial resolution of the processes that we need
to consider? How does the system evolve in space? Is it static, like a map, or dynamic,
like the “game of life” (see http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/ or
http://www.mindspring.com/~alanh/life/index.html)?
What is the specific time of the system? Are we looking at it over years, days,
or seconds? How fast are the processes? Which processes are so slow that they may be
considered constant, which other processes are so fast that they may be considered at
equilibrium? Do we need to see how the system evolves in time, like in a movie, or we
just need a snapshot of the reality, like on a photo? If the system is evolving, how does
it change from one state to another? Is it a continuous process or a discrete, instantaneous
one? Is the next state of the system totally defined by its current one, or is it a
stochastic process, where future states occur spontaneously with certain probability?
What are the elements and processes in our system? How much detail
about them we need and can afford? Do we have enough information about all of
them or some of them are entirely unknown? Which are the limiting ones, where are
the gaps in our knowledge? What are the interactions between the elements?
We might already need to go back and forth from the goals to the data sets. If we
realize that our knowledge is insufficient for the goal in mind, we either need to update
the data sets to better comply with the goals, or we need to redefine the goals to make
them more feasible at the existing level of knowledge.