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Object-Oriented and Agent-Oriented Simulation: Implications for Social Science Application

  • Conference paper
Social Science Microsimulation

Abstract

The description of entities and their interaction is central to object- and agent-oriented simulation. Object- and agent-oriented techniques lend themselves for the multilevel simulation of societies, representing individual and collective actors as objects or agents, respectively. The question rises to what extend does agent-oriented deviate from object-oriented simulation and which are the possibilities each of them offers in capturing phenomena of modern societies. The distinction between objects and agents seems often reduced to a question of naming. However, the simulation of agents that intentionally interact with and reason about their environment surpasses usually the capabilities of object-oriented simulation frameworks. Those agents require specific mechanisms to structure and to expand the knowledge of objects by internal models about the world they are interacting with. At this point, a correspondence between agents and variable structure models can be stated. Between objects and agents, variable structure models play a mediating role in simulating individuals and societies as dynamic, evolving entities. Referring to concepts in individualistic social science and symbolic interactionism, this role is explored more closely. The simulation system AgedDEVS which has been developed to support variable structure models in an object-oriented discrete event simulation system is used for illustration.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fakultät für Informatik Abteilung Künstliche Intelligenz, Universität Ulm, Ulm, Deutschland

    Adelinde Uhrmacher

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  1. Adelinde Uhrmacher
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Sozialwissenschaftliche Informatik, Universität Koblenz-Landau, Rheinau 1, 56075, Koblenz, Germany

    Klaus G. Troitzsch

  2. Medizinische Soziologie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Bunsenstraße 2, 35033, Marburg, Germany

    Ulrich Mueller

  3. Social and Computer Sciences Research Group, University of Surrey, GU2 5XG, Guildford, England

    G. Nigel Gilbert

  4. Department of Computer Science, University of Essex, CO4 3SQ, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, England

    Jim E. Doran

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Uhrmacher, A. (1996). Object-Oriented and Agent-Oriented Simulation: Implications for Social Science Application. In: Troitzsch, K.G., Mueller, U., Gilbert, G.N., Doran, J.E. (eds) Social Science Microsimulation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03261-9_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03261-9_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-08267-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-03261-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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