Making Visible “The Invisible Hand”

Abstract

Agent-based computer simulation is the central (revolutionary) challenge for the future of Social Sciences. The foundational issue of the Social Sciences is the micro-macro link, the relation between cognition and individual behavior and social self-organizing and complex structures. There are no approaches for understanding its (causal) mechanisms better than computer simulation. Special attention should be devoted to the “immergent” top-down feedback on the agent control system. This chapter also attempts to explain a techno-political revolution allowed by distributed computing, and in particular “agents”; agent-based simulation, agents embedded in the smart environment, and agents as representing and mediating in human negotiation and agreement. The social “planning” was doomed to fail for intrinsic political and cognitive limits. MAS and Social Simulation will provide a platform/instrument for social policies, for planning and decision-making; and for focused monitoring and participation. However the solution of the “problem” can never been merely “technical”. The solution requires processes of political negotiation and decision.