Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme

SOE 16: Award Ceremony: Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics

SOE 16.1: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 28, 2012, 18:00–18:40, H 0105

The Role of Agent Based Models in Understanding Human Societies — •Stefan Thurner — Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria — Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA

Humans exhibit a surprising weakness in coping with complex systems in rational and predictive ways. I try to argue that agent based models - the decendents of our spin models in physics - offer a fantastic tool to acquire intuition for mechanisms governing complex adaptive systems, human societies in particular. I try to make this point clear with examples of agent based models in the context of opinion formation, buerocratic inefficiency, and the scientific refereeing system. I will show an example for a novel generation of agent based models where agents are actual humans interacting in an online game. Finally, I will show that in some lucky situations, the understanding gained through agent based models can be destilled into relatively simple relations which then become concrete testable predictions for socio-economic systems.