From KISS to KIDS
– an ‘anti-simplistic’ modelling approach
By: Bruce Edmonds and Scott Moss
Date: 1st April 2004
CPM Report No.: 04-132
Presented
at: The Joint Workshop
on Multi-Agent and Multi-Agent-Based Simulation (MAMABS 2004) at 3rd AAMAS, New York, July 2004.
<>Published
as: Edmonds, B. and Moss, S. (2005) From KISS to KIDS – an
‘anti-simplistic’ modelling approach. In P. Davidsson et al. (Eds.):
Multi Agent Based Simulation 2004. Springer, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence,
3415:130–144.
>
Abstract
A new approach is suggested under the
slogan “Keep it Descriptive Stupid” (KIDS) that
encapsulates a trend in increasingly descriptive agent-based social
simulation. The KIDS approach
entails one starts with the simulation model that relates to the target
phenomena in the most straight-forward way possible, taking into
account the widest possible range of evidence, including anecdotal
accounts and expert opinion. Simplification is only applied when
and if the model and evidence justify this. This contrasts
sharply with the KISS
approach where one starts with the simplest possible model and
only moves to a more complex one if forced to. An example
multi-agent simulation of domestic water demand and social influence is
described.
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