On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 08:27:27PM +0200, Jochen Fromm wrote: > If physics is so successfully described by mathematics because the physical > world is mathematical, and nearly > isomorphic to a mathematical structure, then maybe complex systems are so > successfully described by ABMs because their are isomorphic to them, too. > Complex systems, especially social ones, are "agent-oriented". What do you > think ? > > -J. >
All multi-component systems can be modelled using ABM. Eg, you can model an ideal gas as a collection of simple agents, each agent being a molecule. Its just that when the agents are simple enough, other techniques (eg partial differential equations in CFD, or dynamical systems equations in Molecular Dynamics) are more effective than ABM. At some point, the structure of the individual agents become important as well as their interactions, these other techniques lose their power, and then ABM remains the only possibility. If one defines Complex Systems as those exhibiting Emergence, and further note that emergence necessarily involves multiple interacting components (I'm not 100% convinced this is the case, but certainly all compelling examples of emergence do), then it is hardly surprising that a complex system will always be modelled by an ABM (a sort of lowest common denominator of modelling techniques). Cheers -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Mathematics UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [email protected] Australia http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================ 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
