Frank Schweitzer, Jörg Zimmermann:

Communication and Self-Organization in Complex Systems: A Basic Approach

in:

Knowledge, Complexity and Innovation Systems
(Eds. M. M. Fischer, J. Fröhlich)
(Advances in Spatial Sciences)
Springer, Berlin 2001, pp. 275-296

Abstract:

Complex Systems usually consist of a large number of interacting components; therefore multi-agent models can play a valuable role in exploring and simulating their dynamic behavior. In the first part of this paper we address some conceptual issues associated with designing agent-based models for complex systems. In the second part we investigate the dynamics of a ``minimalistic'' multi-agent system, where spatially distributed agents communicate via a spatio-temporal multicomponent ``communication field''. For the example of a binary choice problem we find the emergence of a majority/minority relation among the agents. Moreover, the minority and the majority concentrate in particular spatial domains; thus we observe a spatial coordination of decisions as the result of a self-organization process based on the exchange of information. We also show by means of computer simulations that the subpopulation with the more efficient communication will have a better chance to become the majority in the system.

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