Article in Physics World that neatly draws the parallels between statistical
physics and agent-based modeling. There's a nice comparison of the role of
interaction:
"In its [statistical physics'] earliest days - in the kinetic theory
of gases devised by James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann - interactions
between particles were neglected. But once they were added by Johann Diderik
van der Waals in the late 19th century, out came all the characteristic
motifs of condensed-matter physics: phase transitions, critical points,
fluctuations, scaling laws and universality. All of these things are now
appearing in studies of social phenomena too."
http://www.physicsweb.org/article/world/16/10/7Robert
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