Joshua M Epstein and Robert Axtell

Growing artificial societies

Doing experiments in the social sciences isn't easy - you can hardly meddle with a society just to see what happens. But it's possible to create computer models of societies, to see which features lead to realistic societies. This is what Joshua M. Epstein and Robert Axtell have done with their Sugarscape model, and Growing Artificial Societies is a report of some of the things they have observed. The model starts with a landscape in which sugar grows, with agents who roam about collecting sugar which they need to live. Even with such a simple model is it possible to see featues such as migration and uneven wealth distribution.

The model is then extended in various ways, for instance giving the agents various properties which can be passed on to offspring via sexual reproduction. Introduction of another commodoty, spice, allows the possibility of trade, an the authors point out the importance of local interactions, as distinct from believing that there must be a global equilibrium price. Introduction of disease to the model shows the advantages of such a cellular automaton based model, as distinct from models based on differential equations. In the last chapter the authors show what can be seen by putting eveything together, showing that such a model can be an invaluable tool in the social sciences, in particular in showing the links between different fields. There is a CD-ROM to go with the book, and it would be good to see some of the examples, but there is no problem with reading the book on its own. (Some parts of the Sugarscape model can also be found on the internet). I'd recommend this book to anyone wanting to see this new way of approaching the social sciences, as well as to those interested in the programming side of such models.

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Paperback 224 pages
ISBN: 0262550253
Salesrank: 353170
Weight:0.9 lbs

Published: 1996 The MIT Press

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Paperback 224 pages
ISBN: 0262550253
Salesrank: 182234
Weight:0.9 lbs

Published: 1996 MIT Press

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Paperback 224 pages
ISBN: 0262550253
Salesrank: 164078
Weight:0.9 lbs

Published: 1996 The MIT Press

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Product Description
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

Product Description

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

This is not a "how-to" book ****
This book is not a "how-to" book. They do not provide all of the code for thier sugarscape model. Yes, they provide some snap-shots of code for the reader, but those are instructive as to how to organize one's own code for your own ideas and models. If you want the entire code go to Swarm or RePast web pages and look for it in objective C or Java. I was introduced to this book in a graduate archaeology course. Now, 3 years later I've returned to it for my dissertation. What this book does it explain how simple rules and ideas can create rather complex outcomes. What are the affects of having agents vision be only 5 cells compared to infinite sight? Can simple biological questions such as resolution of vision have a profound affect on our social structure? There are a bunch of, respectively, simple questions that this book address or introduce to explain the power of this method for the social sciences. If one is looking for a "How To Book" you should go to Ascape, RePast, Swarm, or any of the other agent based modeling software research groups. What this book does is provide the reader with the conceptual issues and the foundation for what this method can do, that's it.

This is not a "how-to" book ****

This book is not a "how-to" book. They do not provide all of the code for thier sugarscape model. Yes, they provide some snap-shots of code for the reader, but those are instructive as to how to organize one's own code for your own ideas and models. If you want the entire code go to Swarm or RePast web pages and look for it in objective C or Java.

I was introduced to this book in a graduate archaeology course. Now, 3 years later I've returned to it for my dissertation. What this book does it explain how simple rules and ideas can create rather complex outcomes. What are the affects of having agents vision be only 5 cells compared to infinite sight? Can simple biological questions such as resolution of vision have a profound affect on our social structure? There are a bunch of, respectively, simple questions that this book address or introduce to explain the power of this method for the social sciences.

If one is looking for a "How To Book" you should go to Ascape, RePast, Swarm, or any of the other agent based modeling software research groups. What this book does is provide the reader with the conceptual issues and the foundation for what this method can do, that's it.

The Future of Modeling Social Systems *****
The authors do an impressive job of demonstrating how agent based simulations can be applied to social systems. In the past, modeling of this sort was limited to traditional analysis techniques such as applied differential equations. While some are critical of this work because they point out the number of assumptions inherent in this model, they also neglect to consider the greater degree of assumptions and over-simplifications implicit in pure mathematical models (eg, linearity, continuous functions, etc.) An advantage of agent based modeling is that one can consider all sorts of rules which do not lend themselves to purely mathematical models. Consider queuing theory as an example. While there exist basic mathematical models for queue analysis, once a certain threshold of complexity is reached, these models fail, and one must look to computer simulation as the alternative. While their results are speculative, the authors have successfully demonstrated emergence of complex behavior from simple rules. One such example is an unexpected diagonal migration path emerging from an orthogonal movement rule. In the future, this type of social modeling will be the accepted norm and practitioners will look back at this work as a foundational reference.

The Future of Modeling Social Systems *****

The authors do an impressive job of demonstrating how agent based simulations can be applied to social systems. In the past, modeling of this sort was limited to traditional analysis techniques such as applied differential equations. While some are critical of this work because they point out the number of assumptions inherent in this model, they also neglect to consider the greater degree of assumptions and over-simplifications implicit in pure mathematical models (eg, linearity, continuous functions, etc.) An advantage of agent based modeling is that one can consider all sorts of rules which do not lend themselves to purely mathematical models. Consider queuing theory as an example. While there exist basic mathematical models for queue analysis, once a certain threshold of complexity is reached, these models fail, and one must look to computer simulation as the alternative. While their results are speculative, the authors have successfully demonstrated emergence of complex behavior from simple rules. One such example is an unexpected diagonal migration path emerging from an orthogonal movement rule.
In the future, this type of social modeling will be the accepted norm and practitioners will look back at this work as a foundational reference.

Good intro to agent sims. ****
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.

Good intro to agent sims. ****

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.

An enormous disappointment **
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,

An enormous disappointment **

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,

Good simulation, poor basis, riddled with errors **
This book was part of a graduate research class I was in. We built thier simulation from the ground up, but found many errors and simulation artifacts with in the book. Though the simulation was a very good one, they left or ignored key details, and the book only discusses the conceptual model. Building the model from the information in the book can be an exercise in futility. They do not give much detail, and what they do give, they hide within footnotes and seperate critical information with pages of analysis. The alanysis unfortunately doesn't talk about model deficiencies and other simulation artifacts the modelers introduced. In the end, an excellent simulation, regardless of how they put it together, and the errors their model injected into it.

Good simulation, poor basis, riddled with errors **

This book was part of a graduate research class I was in. We built thier simulation from the ground up, but found many errors and simulation artifacts with in the book. Though the simulation was a very good one, they left or ignored key details, and the book only discusses the conceptual model. Building the model from the information in the book can be an exercise in futility. They do not give much detail, and what they do give, they hide within footnotes and seperate critical information with pages of analysis. The alanysis unfortunately doesn't talk about model deficiencies and other simulation artifacts the modelers introduced. In the end, an excellent simulation, regardless of how they put it together, and the errors their model injected into it.

cargo-cult science **
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.

cargo-cult science **

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.