Re: Hungarian SugarScape -- rigor

[Catherine Dibble]

hi Manor, Nelson, and folks in Hungary,

(switching thread from support to modelling)

At 07:15 AM 7/7/97 -0700, manor wrote:
>Assuming the students in Hungary are going to start out
>by reproducing the results of Epstein and Axtell I have
>a project that suggested itself while reading their book.
...
>PS> I know it seems kind of tedious, and normally the tendency
>    is to want to add on features (pollution, culture, sex, trade
>    etc. etc. etc.) but it would be nice to know a little more
>    about the simplest configuration of SugarScape.
>
>    Note-- E&A do point out that:
>
>     "Such skewed wealth distributions are produced for wide ranges
>      of agent and environment specifications."
>
>    But this seems a bit short on detail...


Yes!  This exploration of the more fundamental causes driving both
skewed wealth distributions and relative sustainability are two of 
the three families of models that I'm exploring with Swarm in my
dissertation (the first family is a Krugman-style but sector-specific
model of settlement patterns in economic geography).   Yes, these two
families were inspired by the interesting but tantalizingly casual E&A
models in their Sugarscape book.   

However, the main point of the dissertation is methodological: to 
explore the ways in which Swarm  can be used as a computational 
laboratory complement to extend the feasible domains of formal theory.   
In particular, I am studying what it takes to move Swarm models from
playground mode (Sugarscape) toward laboratory mode, where models 
become trustworthy explanatory complements to formal theory.

This "tedium"  is one aspect of the beginnings of any development of rigor
and credibility for Swarm computational laboratories, so let us be tedious!

I would be interested in corresponding with anyone working with 
these families of economic geography, equity, and sustainability models, 
and especially with anyone interested in pushing the envelope of Swarm's 
function as a formal computational laboratory complement to theory.

Catherine
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------*
| Catherine Dibble         |                                            |
| Department of Geography  |   "Theory provides the maps that turn an   |
| University of California |    uncoordinated set of experiments or     |
| Santa Barbara, CA 93106  |    computer simulations into a cumulative  |
|                          |    exploration."                           |
| address@hidden       |    -- Booker, Goldberg, Holland (1989)     |
| www.geog.ucsb.edu/~cath  |      _Artificial Intelligence_ 40:235-282  |
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------*



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