[FRIAM] Agent Based Modeling's Role in Understanding Complexity

[Phil Henshaw]

Well, there's a sort of a minority 'out crowd' kind of view, that what
ABM's let you see you wouldn't otherwise is how nature is behaving that
ABM's aught to emulate but can't for various general and specific
reasons.   The idea that playing with models suggests new ways to play
with models is still there in this minority view, it's just that the
purpose of that is quite different. 
 
 

Phil Henshaw                       ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave 
NY NY 10040                       
tel: 212-795-4844                 
e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
explorations: www.synapse9.com <http://www.synapse9.com/>     
-- "it's not finding what people say interesting, but finding what's
interesting in what they say" --

-----Original Message-----
From: friam-bounces at redfish.com [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On
Behalf Of admin at wkbank.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 4:44 PM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: [FRIAM] Agent Based Modeling's Role in Understanding Complexity



I have just started reading Friam email and hope to participate in an
upcoming Barcamp. I want to understand better the promise of using ABM
in understanding complexity. I heard, I think it was Nicholas Thompson,
say that what he likes about ABM is that it allows him to see things he
wouldn’t be able to see otherwise. (Forgive me Nick, if I got that
wrong) This potential is what interests me
but what “things” does it
allow to be seen
that is what I want to know—that is the conversation I
would like to engage. 

Almost everything allows something else to be seen in a new light. I
want to know if ABM allows

—new understanding in the way say dreams and dreaming allows us to
explore and understand ourselves and each other in a way we wouldn’t be
able to do otherwise

or

—does ABM allow us to see something more like the numerical result of p
divided out for 10 years. That is does ABM allow us to do things we
don’t have the interest or patience to spend our time doing. 

 

Both can be useful but what is it we are looking for? Can ABM bring us
closer together in understanding each other? How? In what way?

 

 

Best wishes,

Ann Racuya-Robbins

Founder and CEO

World Knowledge Bank®

www.wkbank.com

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