Brian Arthur's `El Farol Bar' model is extended so that the agents also learn and communicate. The learning and communication is implemented using an evolutionary process acting upon a population of mental models inside each agent. The evolutionary process is based on a Genetic Programming...

The reductionist/holist debate seems an impoverished one, with many participants appearing to adopt a position first and constructing rationalisations second. Here I propose an intermediate position of pragmatic holism, that irrespective of whether all natural systems are theoretically...

The merits of modelling within a logical, as opposed to Bayesian, framework is discussed. It is claimed that a logical formalism is more appropriate for modelling qualitative decisions and that this framework makes the unfolding of process more apparent. This difference in approach leads to...

It is argued that the credible modelling of economic agents from a bounded rationality perspective, implies a certain difference of approach from those involved in designing agents for a specific task or environment. Some of the ramifications of this are that learning in the resulting models can...

Wider issues of the validation of computational models - ascertaining that they are sound and consistent relative to some logical formalism and/or substantive theory - have not been a subject of the management science literature. In this paper, we demonstrate that computational models can be...

It is argued that complexity has only a limited use as a paradigm against reductionist approaches and that it has a much richer potential as a comparable property. What can complexity be usefully said to be a property of is discussed. It is argued that it is unlikely to have any useful value as...

The simulation of social behavior in a variety of domains is an increasingly important technological tool. A reference survey of social simulation work, This book comprehensively collects the most exciting developments in the field. Drawing research contributions from a vibrant community of...

We distinguish between two main types of model: predictive and explanatory. It is argued (in the absence of models that predict on unseen data) that in order for a model to increase our understanding of the target system the model must credibly represent the structure of that system, including...

The field of memetics is characterised and two types of memetic model analysed: the a priori model and the 'black-box' model. These are used to motivate a picture of scientific modelling, where by chains of models are built from abstract models at the 'top' down to data models derived from...