For hands-on simulation experience, Download Starlogo from the MIT media lab (PC and Mac)
Readings by the author of Starlogo: first chapter, pp. 3-19 (on decentralization): Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams: Explorations in Massively Parallel Microworlds (Complex Adaptive Systems) - Mitchel Resnick; 1997. Paperback MIT PRESS. ISBN: 0262680939 Usually ships in 2-3 days - Amazon Price: $12.50.

Recommended:

xeroxed reader

The instructional format of this course is a bit unusual. We meet each day in a small computer lab. Numerous illustrations of the topics under discussion are provided by web links. With the guidance of the instructor, students explore materials on a related theme, and find materials which may provide a basis for further research, class presentations, and term projects. Tools for computer analysis are illustrated in relation to these topics, and may be downloaded and used in class or at home: they provide a cumulative basis for modeling sociocultural, sociocognitive and social network phenomena via an integrated anthropological perspective.

Week 1 - Intro

Download and install (or access manual for use in the lab) Pajek by Vladimir and Andrej and Pajek Animator and Pajek Converter by Skye (SFI)

*.net files for Pajek - these are for practice sessions affil.net Galois.clu Galois.net Galois.vec Johnson.net maze1.net Nomad1-comp826-2001.net p-fei.net p-fei1738.net p-lou-Housemanu.net p-pul-men.net p-pul.net p-wlf.net Pres.net protein_.net PturNEWarcs.net sea.net span.net span2.net taro.net taromatr.net todos00.net todos03.net Zachary.net zachary1.net zachary2.net

*.ged files for Pajek - kin nets F&Wpres.ged kennedy.ged lincoln2.ged p-fe3.ged p-tur.ged p-wlf.ged pmr-bwr.GED

EXERCISE: I'm my own grandpa! OwnGr-Pa.net

Week 2 - Networks Parts 1 and 2 in Reader

STRUCTURE Point Line (arc, edge) Time Sets (ordered, unordered) Analogous Sets (structural eq., regular eq.) Component, k-components (node, edge) - stack slopes Centers (centrality, centralization) (We study network structure through Graph Theory - see the glossary too)

see Reader for links to examples

P* Cross-Species (H=human P=Primates) Comparison of Networks (Skvoretz & Faust 2001) + Relations: H+P => Mutuality & In-Stars + Relations: P => Out Stars too + Relations: H => Transitive Triples too; no Mixed Stars - Relations: P => Antimutual, Transitive Triples, Anti-Cyclical, Anti-In-Stars, Anti-Mixed-Stars - Relations: H => Intransitive Triples, In-Stars

Book/Article report assignment

Readings and Discussions "Reader" refers to xeroxed reader for the class, above

Web Presentations Networks and Complexity in the Biotech Industry Powell, White, Koput and Owen-Smith

As approaches to social science, and the understanding of society and social dynamics, theories of complexity and evolutionary dynamics are explored through readings (many online) and practicum in the computer lab. The key to complexity is internal diversity, which implies heterarchy: heterogeneity driving up-down processes that drive side-side interactions spawning further heterogeneity. Heterarchical systems are ubiquitous in nature and society. They require variably long time scales for the interactions among their diverse elements to unwind towards thermodynamic equilibrium. The unwinding of long-span (e.g., solar) systems fuels the wind-up of shorter-span (e.g., living) systems. Stacks of such complex systems comprise the universe - physical, biological, and social - as we know it. Within those stacks of interest to this course, we focus on the newly emergent sciences of complexity to study the principles of self-organization of social systems.

In addition to readings on basic principles, students explore several current research approaches in the social sciences and focus on one for a class presentation and term paper. Students with no computer expertise and those with such expertise are both encouraged to participate. Students may work on the presentations and written projects either individually or in groups of up to 3. Guidance is provided for those who wish to do web site presentations.

Dynamical simulation has become a key conceptual tool for the social sciences in understanding how the existing diversity of complex systems has evolved, and may continue to evolve, in the absence of rational planning or central direction. Implications for contemporary political and economic issues include benefits of decentralized evolutionary processes (and tacit/local versus formal/expert knowledge) resulting from innumerable local interactions among actors versus centralized processes where major actors dominate.

Physicists speak to thermodynamic engine processes driving evolution as the unwinding of complex heterarchical systems (where equilibrium equates to death). Darwinian principles speak to how diversity is generated in biological systems through differential reproduction, speciation, and specialization. Evolutionary game theory speaks to how replicator dynamics lead to diverse trajectories, path dependencies, and stable outcomes other than those predicted by models of rational choice and economic equilibrium. Co-evolutionary approaches to complex adaptive systems and their environments open a host of ways that cooperativity can occur with population diversity that is not under direct selective pressure for adaptation.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Browse: web links

Week 2. Diversity and Adaptability: a Balinese Case Study

Reader, Chapter 2. Balinese water temples - see: discussion by Jonathan Sepe
Read text: Axelrod, Chs 1-2
(Book/Article Report:) J. Stephen Lansing. 1991. Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali. $17.95 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. HB99.5 .N67 1990
(Book/Article Reports:) Kohler, Holland

Week 3. Evolving and Co-Evolving Systems

Reader, Chapter 3. Evolutionary Formation, Cooperativity and Condensation (Birth, Maturation, Senescence)
Read text: Axelrod, Chs 3-4
(Book/Article Report:) Hutchins, Resnick / Johnson "Model" sections
Pheleah Reyes chapter 3 book report on Resnick: Ants simulation

Week 4. Problems of Co-Operativity and Dynamics of Organizations

Reader, Chapter 4. Arthur; Wolpert
Read text: Axelrod, Chs 5-6
(Book/Article Report:) Kauffman 1995; Kauffman 2000 / BiosGroup

Preview networks: Network Evolution of the Biotech Industry

Week 5. Diversity and Uncertainty

Read text: Per Bak, How Nature Works Chs 1-2, 6-7 (see critiques of Bak's SOC and extensions, of which DeVany is an example)
Erin Tomlinson & Maree Vincent chapters 1 & 3 book report
Reader, Chapter 5. Adamic and DeVany
Read text: Axelrod, Ch 7
(Book/Article Report:) Prietula and Carley / De Vany and Walls, Barabasi, Saari

Preview homeokinetics: Inflationary Dynamics and Phase Transitions
see: Physics of Phase Transitions Douglas R. White also: Principles of Phase Transition

Week 6. Modeling Complex Adaptive Systems

Read text: Per Bak, How Nature Works Chs 10-11
Reader, Chapter 6. Modeling Adaptive Dynamics
Simulations: Evolving Artificial Moral Ecologies - Theoretical Background - Notes - Simulations - Simulators predprey - Patch Simulator- instructions
(Book/Article Reports:) Shelling; Skyrms; Brams; Alexrod / Holland

Week 7. Social Networks and Social Simulations

Reader, Chapter 7. Skyrms - dynamic model of network formation
Read text: Axelrod, Introduction
(Book/Article Report:) Watts / Barabasi, Skyrms, Powell et al.
see links to: social networks
The Electronic Small World Project take and report on the survey for extra credit - testfile@hotmail testfile
Anthropological Simulations

Week 8. Homeokinetics; Tues Discussions; Thurs Class Presentations

Combining thermodynamic laws with multi-agent models: Velocity of trade phase transitions in economic organization
see: Physics of Phase Transitions Douglas R. White
Example: Inflationary Dynamics and Phase Transitions

Week 9. Tues Thurs: Class Presentations and Discussions

Tom Abel's Simulations by Shenin Mesdaghi

see links to: multi-agent simulations

Week 10. Tues Thurs: Class Presentations and Discussions

see links to: evolutionary game theory

yr 2000 web sites

Social Networks: Pilipino Pre-health student organization by May Lansigan, Joshua Militante, Cornel Pascual, Nomar Sulit
The Rise of American Culture by Eric Vega
Complexity Theory and Teen Parenting by Vicky Grey

recommended and collateral materials

Browse: linkages longitudinal fieldsites

Network explorations in Tierra, artificial life

Skyrms (text). The Social Contract Emergent from Multi-Actor Interactions (see Evolutionary Game Theory by Jason Alexander) Social Dynamics and Rules of Interaction in the Contemporary Context (Postrel): Heterarchy in Networks

Would-Be Worlds: How Simulation Is Changing the Frontiers of Science, by John L. Casti

George B. Dyson, 1997. Chapter 10 (Self-Organizing Systems). Darwin among the machines. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.

For a synopsis of evolutionary theory in biology: John Maynard Smith and O–rs Szathm·ry. 1999. The Origins of Life.

Also: Grobstein, Clifford. 1974 (2nd edition). The Strategy of Life. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.

Tentative Conclusions for Better Approaches to Historical Complexity: SFI Report on Hayward Alken

Global Politics, Common Culture and Sustainability: Robert Axelrod Builds Two New Models

For math and computer background to complexity: The Computational Beauty of Nature : Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation by Gary William Flake. Amazon Price: $45.00

Dynamic Patterns : The Self-Organization of Brain and Behavior (Complex Adaptive Systems) J. A. Scott Kelso. Paperback 1995 Amazon Price: $30

review by Gert Korthof Kauffman At Home in the Universe. "The secret of life is auto-catalysis"

(on-line articles)
Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation.

book reviews from JASSS:

Chaos, Complexity, and Sociology: Myths, Models, and Theories, Edited by Raymond A. Eve, Sara Horsfall and Mary E. Lee. London: Sage Publications. 1997. Reviewed by Alan Dean.

Barriers and Bounds to Rationality: Essays on Economic Complexity and Dynamics in Interactive Systems by Peter S. Albin, Edited by Duncan K. Foley. Princeton, NJ: Princeton thUniversity Press 1998. Reviewed by Roger A. McCain.

Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads through Society. Aaron Lynch. New York, NY: Basic Books. 1996. Reviewed by Paul Marsden.

Social Science Microsimulation. Edited by Klaus G. Troitzsch, et al. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. 1996. reviewed by Brendan Halpin.

System Effects: Complexity in Political and Social Life. by Robert Jervis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 1997 reviewed by Scott E. Page.

Boltzmann and Thermodynamics

Iberall, Arthur, A characteristic 500-year process-time in cultural civilization, Comparative Civilization Review, 32: 146-162, Spring, 1995.

Homeokinetics:

Iberall, A. How to run a society, 6 parts, CP2: Commentaries, Physical and Philosophic, Laguna Hills, CA, 1.1-2.2, 1990-1991.Ý Thermodynamics

Complex Systems

David Green's Complex Systems Virtual Library

Yahoo's Complex Systems pages

Complexity: applications some web links

Agent Simulation/artificial life

Chris Langdon

Agent Simulation

Brief Overview of Swarm Agent Simulation

Agent-Based Computational Economics

Adaptive Agent Simulation SANTA FE INSTITUTE

Yahoo's Artificial Life pages

ALife home page

Anasazi Village Formation simulation

Other Simulation

Croatian Society for Computer Simulation Modelling

Computer Simulation of Societies

Game Theory

Roger A. McCain Strategy and Conflict: An Introductory Sketch of Game Theory

some notes and references

Complexification: Explaining a Paradoxical World Through the Science of Surprise, by John L. Casti

The Logics of Social Structure by Kyriakos M. Kontopolous $52.95+

Computer Simulation: The Art and Science of Digital World Construction, by Paul A. Fishwick

Networks in Action: Communication, Economics and Human Knowledge, by David Batten, John Casti, Roland Thord (Editor)

Cooperation and Conflict in General Evolutionary Processes, by John L. Casti (Editor), Anders Karlqvist (Editor)

other recommended texts: