Agent_zero : Toward Neurocognitive Foundations for Generative Social Science

Joshua M Epstein

ISBN 10: 0691158886 / ISBN 13: 9780691158884

Published by Princeton University Press Feb 2014, 2014

About this Item

Neuware - 'Agent Zero offers a solution to some of social science's great puzzles. Its behavioral basis is the interplay of emotion, cognition, and network contagion effects. It elegantly explains why so many human actions are so manifestly dysfunctional, and why some are downright evil.'--George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics.

Seller Inventory # 9780691158884

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Agent_zero : Toward Neurocognitive Foundations for Generative Social Science
• Publisher: Princeton University Press Feb 2014
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691158886
• ISBN 13: 9780691158884
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 241W x 159H x 25D millimeters 241 millimeters width by 159 millimeters height by 25 millimeters depth
• Weight: 687 grams

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Joshua M. Epstein directs the Center for Advanced Modeling at The Johns Hopkins University, where he is a professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine with joint appointments in the Departments of Applied Mathematics, Economics, International Health, Environmental Health Sciences, Biostatistics, Civil Engineering, and the Institute for Computational Medicine. He is also an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. This volume forms a trilogy on agent-based modeling, with Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up (MIT), with coauthor Robert Axtell, and Generative Social Science: Studies in Agent-Based Computational Modeling (Princeton).