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"Growing Artificial Societies is a milestone in social science research.It vividly demonstrates the potential of agent-based computer simulation tobreak disciplinary boundaries. It does this by analyzing in a unifiedframework the dynamic interactions of such diverse activities as trade,combat, mating, culture, and disease. It is an impressive achievement." Robert Axelrod, University of Michigan
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How do social structures and group behaviors arise from the interaction of individuals? Growing Artificial Societies approaches this question with cutting-edge computer simulation techniques. Fundamental collective behaviors such as group formation, cultural transmission, combat, and trade are seen to "emerge" from the interaction of individual agents following a few simple rules.In their program, named Sugarscape, Epstein and Axtell begin the development of a "bottom up" social science that is capturing the attention of researchers and commentators alike.The study is part of the 2050 Project, a joint venture of the Santa Fe Institute, the World Resources Institute, and the Brookings Institution. The project is an international effort to identify conditions for a sustainable global system in the next century and to design policies to help achieve such a system.Growing Artificial Societies is also available on CD-ROM, which includes about 50 animations that develop the scenarios described in the text.Copublished with the Brookings Institution
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is an opportunity missed. The subject is interesting (and contrary to the views of another reviewer, I think there is valuable research being done here).
The model seems to be well thought out, although its very limited scope (a 50 by 50 playing field) makes me almost sure the results can have little meaning. I was continuously troubled by the fact that they described their world as a torus (wrap-around like a doughnut) but none of the illustrations supported this. I didn't buy the version with the CD-ROM, but frankly, I'm glad I saved my money.
Moreover, at almost every paragraph, I felt the authors had contrived the result they desired.
For a much more stimulating read, try "Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams : Explorations in Massively Parallel Microworlds" by Mitchel Resnick,
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Granted, this is not a cookbook for creating the simulations described. However, it gives a good picture of the power of agent simulations, and shows the basics of behavior modeling. In this respect, it is an excellent text. I would suggest it for an advanced undergrad course, rather than graduate level.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The following is from the Sept 1997 issue of "Doctor Dobbs Journal", also available at the Electronic Review of Computer Books (www.ercb.com/ddj/1997/ddj.9709.html):
Cellular automata can indeed generate complex behavior; the problem is, how do you determine what, if anything, that behavior means? A pendulum is billions of simple entities (atoms) interacting through simple rules (electromagnetic forces and gravity); does that mean that the swinging motion of a pendulum tells us something profound about the economic cycle of capitalist economies? By changing the parameters in the authors' "Sugarscape" worldlet, you can get its little agents to migrate, to trade, and so on. But what the authors don't report is how many combinations of parameters they tried that didn't produce behavior that could be given an intriguing label...in short, all the things you would need to know to judge for yourself how significant their results really are.
..."Growing Artificial Societies" is an example of "cargo-cult science." Its authors enact the rituals of science without seeming to understand the reasons for those rituals.
Cellular automata can indeed generate complex behavior; the problem is, how do you determine what, if anything, that behavior means? A pendulum is billions of simple entities (atoms) interacting through simple rules (electromagnetic forces and gravity); does that mean that the swinging motion of a pendulum tells us something profound about the economic cycle of capitalist economies? By changing the parameters in the authors' "Sugarscape" worldlet, you can get its little agents to migrate, to trade, and so on. But what the authors don't report is how many combinations of parameters they tried that didn't produce behavior that could be given an intriguing label...in short, all the things you would need to know to judge for yourself how significant their results really are.
..."Growing Artificial Societies" is an example of "cargo-cult science." Its authors enact the rituals of science without seeming to understand the reasons for those rituals.
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