Natural Algorithms and Influence Systems.

Algorithms offer a rich, expressive language for modelers of biological and social systems. They lay the grounds for numerical simulations and, crucially, provide a powerful framework for their analysis. The new area of natural algorithms may reprise in the life sciences the role differential equati...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Communications of the ACM Vol. 55; no. 12; pp. 101 - 111
Autor principal: Chazelle, Bernard
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Association for Computing Machinery Dec2012
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:Algorithms offer a rich, expressive language for modelers of biological and social systems. They lay the grounds for numerical simulations and, crucially, provide a powerful framework for their analysis. The new area of natural algorithms may reprise in the life sciences the role differential equations have long played in the physical sciences. For this to happen, however, an "algorithmic calculus" is needed. We discuss what this program entails in the context of influence systems, a broad family of multiagent models arising in social dynamics.