Very like a whale … the missing meta-phor

We simulationists are in the meta business. The best of us think in abstracted terms about the questions we are tasked to answer and the referents we are challenged to represent. Yet what we have found most elusive is the meta-language for our own identity. We have been called “tool builders” but we know we are more. Our position descriptions are entitled “engineer, scientist, programmer, analyst, researcher” but we know those words are inadequate. Our terminology overlaps with the ontology owned by the systems we simulate. Our attempts to be officially recognized as a unique profession have thus far failed. But we recognize something in ourselves and in each other that we have thus far failed to name. Literal attempts to differentiate us from other technical professionals have proven uninspiring. Is it possible for us to apply our metaphorical skills to unite our thinking and equip us with a common vision? Or are we simply very like simulationists?