Mathematics VS? Agent Based Modeling

[Michael Agar]

I dunno. Just back from a session with a national group who use "systems
of care" to think about delivery of mental health services for youth.
Ethno/CAS/ABM logic--helped by Netlogo boids/segregation models and
Drugtalk and a viz Steve lent me--changed the trajectory of plans and
conversations as they got out from under linear causal hierarchical
equilibrium modality. Stuff can't be all bad, even if the theorems
aren't right.

Mike

>>> [hidden email] 03/11/05 8:57 AM >>>
And ah, the usual grandiose claims for ABMs. I particularly liked the
suggestion that ABMs were appropriate for situations where
"...simulation of
a system is part of a larger project whose desired outcome is a control
scheme that more or less automatically regulates the behavior of the
entire
system."

And that got me thinking: has there been any (and I do mean any)
real-world
examples of using an ABM in a closed-loop control system (i.e. one that
doesn't just produce some estimates of a control paramter but actually
enacts them)? Such control systems are all around us and - as far as I
can
make out - they are all examples of EBMs (even the analogue ones).

Robert

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen Guerin [mailto:[hidden email]]
> Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 12:21 AM
> To: [hidden email]; The Friday Morning Applied
> Complexity Coffee Group
> Subject: RE: [FRIAM] Mathematics VS? Agent Based Modeling
>
> ah, the good ole' ABM v. EBM debate...
>
> Parunak has a good '98 paper from a practioners perspective:
> "Agent-Based Modeling vs. Equation-Based Modeling"
> http://www.pscs.umich.edu/education/CSCS-courses/cscs530/W02/T

xt/mabs98.pdf

>
> And then, by contrast, I like how Eric Bonabeau tries to
> change the focus from ABM vs. EBM to stressing the
> distinction of Macro vs. Micro approaches to modeling:
>
> "Agent-based modeling: Methods and techniques for simulating
> human systems"
> http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/99/suppl_3/7280
> "ABM is a mindset more than a technology. The ABM mindset
> consists of describing a system from the perspective of its
> constituent units. A number of researchers think that the
> alternative to ABM is traditional differential equation
> modeling; this is wrong, as a set of differential equations,
> each describing the dynamics of one of the system's
> constituent units, is an agent-based model. A synonym of ABM
> would be microscopic modeling, and an alternative would be
> macroscopic modeling."
>
> -Steve
>
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