Catastrophes and Unexpected Behavior Patterns in Complex Artificial Populations

A major objective of this monograph is to present an agent-based simulation of artificial populations. The focus is on possible unexpected or catastrophic events that may spontaneously appear in simulations. A short recall of the tenets of the theory of catastrophes is given. Several examples of artificial society simulations are provided as the main topic of the book. With agent-based modeling, possible catastrophes and unexpected events in artificial populations are simulated. The book presents a new modeling and simulation tool, applied to social system simulation. The models are coded in the object- and agent-oriented language Bluesss (Blues Simulation System), related to the C++ language. The program code consists of a series of generic declarations of processes. Each of them includes a number of events that are coded in C++. At the runtime, a population of objects is generated. All the objects (agents) start to execute their own events, and interact with one another. During the simulations it is possible to observe the macro-behavior of the population, where some unexpected or 'catastrophic' events occur. The examples include a stock market crash, catastrophes in extended prey-predator systems, growing organisms and cancer, epidemics, social inequality and economic decay, mass-service systems, and more. Remarks on possible simultaneous events are also included.

Stanislaw Raczynski received his master degree from the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy (AGH) in Krakow Poland, his Ph.D, and Habilitation degree from the same Academy, in the area of control theory and optimization methods. He was the head of the Computer Center of the AGH. and of the Systems Analysis Group at the AGH. Dr. Raczynski worked as a researcher in the International Research Group in Moscow USSR, and participated in the activities of the European Workshop on Industrial Computer Systems. He was a visiting professor of the National University of Mexico, and then a professor of the Panamericana University in Mexico City. Dr. Raczynski also has been the International Director of the Society for Computer Simulation. He wrote three books on computer simulation (Wiley UK, BrownWalker Press and Springer Nature) and has more than 140 articles and papers published in professional journals and conference proceedings.