Published as: Moss, S. (2000) Canonical Tasks, Environments and Models for Social Simulation, Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, 6 (3) 249-275
Abstract
A framework is proposed for situating social simulation models relative to one another and to abstract and applications domains. The framework is a digit-string representation of the environment and agents’ actions. Three organizational models are used to develop and test this framework which is termed a canonical task environment since a variety of specific task environments map directly into it. It is suggested that such canonical task environments provide a suitable alternative to an overarching theory for the social simulation community.