I think ABMs are more than a tool for poking around in a complicated system, they can be a tool to understand complex systems (in the social sciences) and to build them (in computer science). Every social system is composed of interacting actors or 'agents'.
In ABMs the word 'model' often means to specify 'the rules of the game', especially in those areas related to old-fashioned game theory: to specify exactly what kind of agents exist (the states) and how they interact (the rules). As Bonabeau says, "at the simplest level, an agent-based model consists of a system of agents and the relationships between them". http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/99/suppl_3/7280 The exploration of these models is a kind of new mathematics, an exploration of a universe we have defined ourselves. Yet mathematics is a special science. In science you have to be able to say something that can be shown to be wrong. Even if you have no data to verify, or no new theory to explain something, you can say in mathematics it is true because you proved it, and anyone can verify if it is true or not by verifying the proof. What is the equivalent to axioms, theorems, lemmas and deductive proofs in the NKS of ABMs ? [A mathematical theorem has two parts: first a set-up or set of assumptions (a number of conditions), and second a conclusion or proposition (a statement which is true under the given set-up). Does it make sense to say that the first corresponds to the set-up of an agent-based model, the second to the associated emergent phenomenon ?] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, August 14, 2006 5:51 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The art of agent-based modeling ABMs are useful for poking around a complicated system to see what matters and what doesn't by using a familiar and direct way of describing things, and to leave the abstractions for later. ABMs complement traditional techniques of analysis by extending data. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
