---
creation date: 2024-08-06
modification date: Tuesday 6th August 2024 10:20:59
tags:
  - Research
---
According to ChatGPT:

A vision paper is a type of academic or technical paper that presents a forward-looking perspective on a specific field or topic. Unlike research papers that typically focus on presenting specific results from empirical studies or experiments, vision papers aim to:

1. **Propose New Ideas**: Introduce innovative concepts, frameworks, or methodologies that have the potential to advance the field.
2. **Set Future Directions**: Outline key challenges, opportunities, and research directions for the future.
3. **Stimulate Discussion**: Encourage debate and inspire the academic community to explore and expand upon the proposed ideas.

Vision papers are often speculative and may not present completed work, but they are valuable for setting the agenda and shaping the future of research in a particular area. They are commonly found in fields like computer science, engineering, and technology, where rapid advancements and ongoing innovation are crucial.

I also found this blog post by (Michael Nielsen)[https://scienceplusplus.org/visions/index.html]. He talks a lot (maybe too much) about what it means to write a vision paper. Basically, skipping out on the technical details but creating a narrative that lets someone be able to think forward about what can come next. 
This isn't to say however that the papers are unscientific. In fact, they contain several scientific details. Reasoning must be predicated on evidence rather than pie-in-the-sky conjecture. The author mentions two of the 5 papers listed explicitly: Alan Kay's paper on a modern computing tablet system, and Alexei Kitaev's paper which is the basis of topological quantum computing. Both of these papers are vision papers but have a significant difference. Kay uses illustrations (literally) to define his vision for the future, and also sets up his explanation with a story about teachers before hand. **This is something everyone can relate to.** Kitaev, on the other hand, immediately jumps into mathematics as his form of reasoning. This is harder to digest as a casual reader, but certainly makes him sound like he's already got it figured out.

Another thing that Nielsen mentions is that vision papers often get laughed at out of journals because the intellectual merit isn't always very clear. It can take some time before the value of a vision paper is recognized, if at all. 

Now time to work on the vision paper for Mai's workshop
Two Ideas:
[[Models All The Way Down - A Path Towards Software and Physical System Proof Synergy]]
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