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Complex Adaptive Systems

An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life
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( 461 ratings, 31 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Complex Adaptive Systems offers a clear and comprehensive introduction to complex adaptive social systems, written by leading experts John H. Miller and Scott Page. The book explores systems ranging from political parties to ant colonies, focusing on concepts like emergence, self-organised criticality, networks, diversity, and feedback. It blends technical details with intuitive explanations and covers methods including mathematics and computational models to study adaptation, decentralisation, and robustness across economics, biology, political science, and physics.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book is ideal for graduate students, researchers, and policymakers interested in the interdisciplinary study of social sciences, computational modelling, and complex systems. It serves those seeking both theoretical foundations and applied methods across economics, political science, biology, and related fields.

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Provides an account of complex adaptive social systems, by two of the field's leading authorities. This work focuses on the key tools and ideas that have emerged in the field since the mid-1990s, as well as the techniques needed to investigate such systems. It also demonstrates how the usual extremes used in modeling can be fruitfully transcended.

The use of computational, especially agent-based, models has already shown its value in illuminating the study of economic and other social processes. Miller and Page have written an orientation to this field that is a model of motivation and insight, making clear the underlying thinking and illustrating it by varied and thoughtful examples. It conveys with remarkable clarity the essentials of the complex systems approach to the embarking researcher. -- Kenneth J. Arrow, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics In Complex Adaptive Systems, two masters of this burgeoning field provide a highly readable and novel restatement of the logic of social interactions, linking individually based micro processes to macrosocial outcomes, ranging from Adam Smith's invisible hand to Thomas Schelling's models of standing ovations. The book combines the vision of a new Santa Fe school of computational, social, and behavioral science with essential 'how to' advice for apprentice modelers. -- Samuel Bowles, author of "Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions, Evolution" This is a wonderful book that will be read by graduate students, faculty, and policymakers. The authors write in an extraordinarily clear manner about topics that are very technical and difficult for many people. I sat down to begin thumbing through and found myself deeply engaged. -- Elinor Ostrom, author of "Understanding Institutional Diversity"

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

This book provides the first clear, comprehensive, and accessible account of complex adaptive social systems, by two of the field's leading authorities. Such systems—whether political parties, stock markets, or ant colonies—present some of the most intriguing theoretical and practical challenges confronting the social sciences.

Engagingly written, and balancing technical detail with intuitive explanations, Complex Adaptive Systems focuses on the key tools and ideas that have emerged in the field since the mid-1990s, as well as the techniques needed to investigate such systems. It provides a detailed introduction to concepts such as emergence, self-organized criticality, automata, networks, diversity, adaptation, and feedback.

It also demonstrates how complex adaptive systems can be explored using methods ranging from mathematics to computational models of adaptive agents. John Miller and Scott Page show how to combine ideas from economics, political science, biology, physics, and computer science to illuminate topics in organisation, adaptation, decentralisation, and robustness. They also demonstrate how the usual extremes used in modelling can be fruitfully transcended.

Series: Princeton Studies in Complexity

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Kenneth J. Arrow, Nobel Prize in economics, praises the book for its clarity and insight into computational and agent-based models, calling it a model of motivation for researchers. Samuel Bowles highlights its readability and practical advice for modelers, noting its unique restatement of social interaction logic and connection of micro processes to macro outcomes such as Adam Smith's invisible hand.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780691127026

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 25 March 2007

Country: United States

Imprint: Princeton University Press

Illustration: 18 halftones. 16 line illus. 42 tables.

Audience: Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Width: 152.0mm

Height: 235.0mm

Weight: 397g

Pages: 284

About the Author

John H. Miller is professor of economics and social sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. Scott E. Page is professor of complex systems, political science, and economics at the University of Michigan. He is the author of The Difference (Princeton).

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