Dialogues concerning a (possibly) new science
By: Guillaume Deffuant, Wander Jager and Scott Moss
Date: 1st November 2005
CPM Report No.: CPM-05-157
Presented at the ESSA 2005 conference in
September in Koblenz, Germany.
The three characters, Dreamer, Experimentalist and Realistic, meet in an ideal place of Toscana. They come from different places of the old, decadent and altogether fundamentally renewing Europe of the early 21st century. They were invited in this place to discuss matters of high importance: Do agent based computer simulations offer a venue for a new social science? On what basis such a new science would stand? What role would play experimental approaches developed in social psychology? How to use case studies from the real world? Is there a need to develop a specific methodology of simulation?
A tiny breeze of spring brings perfumes from the high cypress along the pools and gardens. Dreamer opens the discussion...