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Nature 448, 647-648 (9 August 2007) | doi:10.1038/448647a; Published online 8 August 2007
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- El Paso, Texas, USA
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- University of Toronto
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Social science goes virtual
Philip Ball1
Abstract
Mathematical models could help us re-engage with reality rather than trying to reinvent it.
BOOK REVIEWED-Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life
by John H. Miller & Scott E. Page
Princeton University Press: 2007. 284 pp. $24.95, £14.95 (pbk); $65.00, £38.95 (hbk)
BOOK REVIEWED-Generative Social Science: Studies in Agent Based Computational Modeling
by Joshua M. Epstein
Princeton University Press: 2007. 352 pp. $49.50, £29.95
The idea that the social sciences have anything to learn from the physical sciences has raised many hackles. Some social scientists suggest that to use particle-like models of 'agents' that interact via simple rules to explore the emergence of complex collective behaviour is to neglect the sociologist's obligation to explain why individuals behave the way they do.
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