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Exploring self-organized emergence in an agent-based synthetic warfare lab

Article Information:

Title:

Exploring self-organized emergence in an agent-based synthetic warfare lab

Author(s):

Andrew Ilachinski

Journal:

Kybernetes

Year:

2003

Volume:

32

Issue:

1/2

Page:

38 - 76


ISSN:

0368-492X


DOI:

10.1108/03684920310452337

Publisher:

MCB UP Ltd

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Abstract:

Artificial-life techniques – specifically, agent-based models and evolutionary learning algorithms – provide a potentially powerful new approach to understanding some of the fundamental processes of war. This paper introduces a simple artificial-like “toy model” of combat called Enhanced ISAAC Neural Simulation Tool (EINSTein). EINSTein is designed to illustrate how certain aspects of land combat can be viewed as self-organized, emergent phenomena resulting from the dynamical web of interactions among notional combatants. EINSTein's bottom-up, synthesist approach to the modeling of combat stands in stark contrast to the more traditional top-down, or reductionist approach taken by conventional military models, and represents a step toward developing a complex systems theoretic toolbox for identifying, exploring, and possibly exploiting self-organized emergent collective patterns of behavior on the real battlefield. A description of the model is provided, along with examples of emergent agent patterns and behaviors.

Keywords:

Adaptive techniques, Cellular automata, Cybernetics, Systems


Article Type:

Research paper


Article URL:

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/03684920310452337

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