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→Multi-agent Systems
==Multi-agent Systems==
==Multi-agent Systems (MAS)==
Until the development of MAS in the 1990s, computer simulations of social phenomena primarily used analytics, or equation-based modeling (EBM). Examples include the utility functions of rational choice theory (e.g., Coleman 1990) and the system dynamics of macro-sociological and organizational models (e.g., Forrester 1968). In EBM, the model is a set of equations (typically differential or difference equations), and the execution of the simulation consists of evaluating the equations (Halpin 1999; Parunak, Savit, and Riolo 1998). Many sociologists are under the impression that EBM is the only computer simulation tool available to them; social simulation is considered to be a part of the American Sociological Association
section on mathematical sociology. Recent survey articles on sociological simulation neglect MAS completely or mention them only in passing (Halpin 1999; Hanneman, Collins, and Mordt 1995; Meeker and Leik 1997).
In an artificial society, the model is a multiagent system: a set of autonomous agents that operate in parallel and that communicate with each other. The earliest implementation of an artificial societywas the famous checkerboard simulation of racial segregation of Schelling (1971). Like Schelling’s early simulation, artificial societies allow researchers to run virtual experiments, setting up a series of simulations to address a specific research question. The simulation consists of activating all of the agents and observing the macro behavior that emerges as the agents interact. In the 1990s, computer modeling techniques and computational power evolved to the point where MAS became a viable simulation tool for sociologists and economists. This approach to social simulation has rapidly gathered momentum among computer scientists; several edited collections have appeared (Conte, Hegselmann, and Terna 1997; Gilbert and Conte 1995; Gilbert and Doran 1994; Moss and Davidsson 2001; Sallach and Macal 2001; Sichman, Conte, and Gilbert 1998), and a new journal has been founded, the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/JASSS/).
MASare computer systems that contain more than one computational agent. The agents are autonomous: They have control over their own behavior and can act without the intervention of humans or other systems. Interest in MAS among computer scientists was first driven by the development of multiprocessor computers in the 1980s and then by the rapid expansion of the Internet in the 1990s.
==See also==
==See also==