social reading

For Tuesday 8/26: Simulation

Sorry for the late posting, but the topic for tomorrow is simulation. I've selected two readings:

• Philosophical Ideas on the Simulation of Social Behaviour by Carlos Gershenson (J. of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Vol. 5, no. 3, June 2002). A think piece on abstraction vs. reality and the building of relevant models. Pretty light read.
  
  
  
• Talking Helps: Evolving Communicating
  Agents for the Predator-Prey Pursuit Problem by Kam-Chuen Jim and C. Lee Giles (2000). A fascinating variation on predator-prey simulations in which the predators are given a chance to evolve a language of binary strings in order to improve their coordination in pursuing prey. Very much worth reading.
  

We'll meet at noon in the Sociable Media space, room 468 of the Media Lab. If it's nice, we'll go outside.