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PV: Plenarvorträge

PV II

PV II: Plenarvortrag

Montag, 24. März 2003, 17:30–18:15, HSZ/01

Social Dilemmas and Information Networks: a physics approach — •Bernardo A. Hubermann — Systems Research Center, HP Labs, Palo Alto, USA

It is a long tradition in physics to proceed from the study of very simple systems to more complex ones, as exemplified by the transition from atomic physics to statistical mechanics. When moving to distributed systems made out of intentional agents, such as information networks or economies, one needs to take into account the intentional nature of the agents when establishing how individual strategies give rise to overall behaviors.

I will describe a physics approach to social dilemmas and their manifestation in information networks that enabled the understanding of their dynamics while making testable predictions about global behavior. These insights led to the design of novel mechanisms for accessing knowledge and the discovery of hidden regularities in large distributed systems.