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Elements of a Theory of Simulation

Author

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  • Steen Rasmussen
  • Christopher L. Barrett

Abstract

Artificial Life and the more general area of Complex Systems does not have a unified theoretical framework although most theoretical work in these areas is based on simulation. This primarily due to an insufficient representational power of the classical mathematical frameworks for the description of discrete dynamical systems of interacting objects with often complex internal states. Unlike computation or the numerical analysis of differential equations, simulation does not have a well established conceptual and mathematical foundation. Simulation is an arguable unique union of modeling and computation. However, simulation also qualifies as a separate species of system representation with its own motivations, characteristics, and implications. This work outlines how simulation can be rooted in mathematics and shows which properties some of the elements of such a mathematical framework has. The properties of simulation are described and analyzed in terms of properties of dynamical systems. It is shown how and why a simulation produces emergent behavior and why the analysis of the dynamics of the system being simulated always is an analysis of emergent phenomena. Indeed, the single fundamental class of properties of the natural world that simulation will open to new understanding, is that which occurs only in the dynamics produced by the interactions of the components of complex systems. Simulation offers a synthetic, formal framework for the experimental mathematics of representation and analysis of complex dynamical systems. A notion of a universal simulator and the definition of simulatability is proposed. This allows a description of conditions under which simulations can distribute update functions over system components, thereby determining simulatabilty. The connection between the notion of simulatabilty and the notion of computability is defined and the concepts are distinguished. The basis of practical detection methods for determining effectively non-simulatable systems in practice is presented. The conceptual framework is illustrated, computability, dynamics, emergence, system representation, universal simulator.

Suggested Citation

  • Steen Rasmussen & Christopher L. Barrett, 1995. "Elements of a Theory of Simulation," Working Papers 95-04-040, Santa Fe Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:wop:safiwp:95-04-040
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steen Rasmussen & Joshua R. Smith, 1994. "Lattice Polymer Automata," Working Papers 94-09-048, Santa Fe Institute.
    2. Kai Nagel & Steen Rasmussen, 1994. "Traffic at the Edge of Chaos," Working Papers 94-06-032, Santa Fe Institute.
    3. Unknown, 1986. "Letters," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 1(4), pages 1-9.
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    Cited by:

    1. Garavaglia, Christian, 2010. "Modelling industrial dynamics with "History-friendly" simulations," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 258-275, November.
    2. Alan Baker, 2010. "Simulation-Based Definitions of Emergence," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9.
    3. Bernd Mayer & Steen Rasmussen, 1998. "Self-Reproduction of Dynamical Hierarchies in Chemical Systems," Working Papers 98-05-038, Santa Fe Institute.

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