[FRIAM] The art of agent-based modeling

[Jochen Fromm]

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: mgd at santafe.edu
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.