"The Final Volume of the Groundbreaking Trilogy on Agent-Based ModelingIn this pioneering synthesis, Joshua Epstein introduces a new theoretical entity: Agent Zero. This software individual, or "agent," is endowed with distinct emotional/affective, cognitive/deliberative, and social modules. Grounded in contemporary neuroscience, these internal components interact to generate observed, often far-from-rational, individual behavior. When multiple agents of this new type move and interact spatially, they collectively generate an astonishing range of dynamics spanning the fields of social conflict, psychology, public health, law, network science, and economics.Epstein weaves a computational tapestry with threads from Plato, Hume, Darwin, Pavlov, Smith, Tolstoy, Marx, James, and Dostoevsky, among others. This transformative synthesis of social philosophy, cognitive neuroscience, and agent-based modeling will fascinate scholars and students of every stripe. Epstein's computer programs are provided in the book or on its Princeton University Press website, along with movies of his "computational parables." Agent Zero is a signal departure in what it includes (e.g., a new synthesis of neurally grounded internal modules), what it eschews (e.g., standard behavioralimitation), the phenomena it generates (from genocide to financial panic), and the modeling arsenal it offers the scientific community. For generative social science, Agent Zero presents a groundbreaking vision and the tools to realize it"--
This is a book of philosophy based in neuroscience and data visualization, intended for the social sciences. The book's core claim is that the neurobiology of human fear can predict the behavior of people in groups, in situations from lynching to the stock market. The author advocates uniting all the social sciences into one field based in brain research. Since humans are highly social animals, fear responses are neurologically contagious. The author proposes a new theoretical factor to explain how hostile or fear-based actions spread and show extinction over time. He stresses the proposed factor does not consider the actual dangers a person has experienced, but their disposition to act fearfully/violently, because witnessing the fear of others neurologically conditions them to do so. In this way fear or hostility can spread to people, times, and places where it is completely irrational. Critics will note the author's category of people acting from fear by proxy, which he calls Agent Zero and treats as a data factor, is a reified story about people's feelings, not a factor measurably affecting their choices; many of the graphics here are not supporting data but computer visualizations of the author's ideas. The author anticipates the criticism by saying this is a new field, so data proofs are not yet developed; the book is a series of thought experiments that can guide future research. A professor in Emergency Medicine, he holds joint appointments in Mathematics, Economics, International Health, Environmental Health Sciences, Biostatistics, Civil Engineering, and Computational Medicine, and directs a center for data modeling. The book is intended for academic and professional rather than popular readers. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
The Final Volume of the Groundbreaking Trilogy on Agent-Based Modeling
In this pioneering synthesis, Joshua Epstein introduces a new theoretical entity:Agent_Zero. This software individual, or "agent," is endowed with distinct emotional/affective, cognitive/deliberative, and social modules. Grounded in contemporary neuroscience, these internal components interact to generate observed, often far-from-rational, individual behavior. When multiple agents of this new type move and interact spatially, they collectively generate an astonishing range of dynamics spanning the fields of social conflict, psychology, public health, law, network science, and economics.
Epstein weaves a computational tapestry with threads from Plato, Hume, Darwin, Pavlov, Smith, Tolstoy, Marx, James, and Dostoevsky, among others. This transformative synthesis of social philosophy, cognitive neuroscience, and agent-based modeling will fascinate scholars and students of every stripe. Epstein’s computer programs are provided in the book or on its Princeton University Press website, along with movies of his "computational parables."
Agent_Zero is a signal departure in what it includes (e.g., a new synthesis of neurally grounded internal modules), what it eschews (e.g., standard behavioral imitation), the phenomena it generates (from genocide to financial panic), and the modeling arsenal it offers the scientific community.
For generative social science, Agent_Zero presents a groundbreaking vision and the tools to realize it.
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