4.3 More Detailed Case Studies

4.3.1 BarGoer-6 at week 100 of the run with the crowd-avoiding scheme and listening only (ca+l)

This case is intended to illustrate the possibility of social embedding in detail. To give a flavour of how complex a detailed explanation of behaviour can get I will follow back the chain of causation for the action of barGoer-6 at week 100.

At week 100, barGoer-6's action expression was:

[OR [AND [OR [AND [AND [saidBy ['barGoer-4']] [OR [AND [NOT [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-3']]] [saidBy ['barGoer-3']]] [saidBy ['barGoer-4']]]] [NOT [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-3']]]] [saidBy ['barGoer-3']]] [NOT [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-3']]]] [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-4']]]

which simplifies to:

[OR [AND [OR [saidBy ['barGoer-4']] [saidBy ['barGoer-3']]]] [NOT [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-3']]]] [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-4']]]

substituting the talk expressions from bar goers 3 and 4 in week 100 gives:

[OR [AND [OR [saidByLast ['barGoer-7']] [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-7']]]] [NOT [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-3']]]] [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-4']]]

substituting the action expressions from bar goers 3, 4 and 7 in week 99 gives:

[OR [AND [OR [saidByLast ['barGoer-7']] [previous [OR [OR [T] [saidBy ['barGoer-2']]] [T]]] [NOT [previous [ISaidYesterday]]]] [previous [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-9']]]]

which simplifies to:

[OR [NOT [previous [saidBy ['barGoer-3']]]] [previous [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-9']]]]

substituting the talk expressions from barGoer-3 in week 99 gives:

[OR [NOT [previous [[wentLastWeek ['barGoer-7']]]]] [previous [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-9']]]]

substituting the action expressions from bar goers 7 and 9 in week 98 gives:

[OR [NOT [previous [previous [OR [OR [saidBy ['barGoer-10']] [OR [T] [OR [randomDecision] [saidBy ['barGoer-2']]]]] [F]]]]] [previous [previous [NOT [AND [saidBy ['barGoer-2']] [AND [AND [saidBy ['barGoer-2']] [NOT [AND [saidBy ['barGoer-6']] [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-6']]]]] [OR [AND [AND [AND [saidBy ['barGoer-2']] [OR [AND [saidBy ['barGoer-2']] [NOT [AND [saidBy ['barGoer-6']] [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-6']]]]] [saidBy ['barGoer-2']]]] [AND [saidBy ['barGoer-2']] [NOT [AND [AND [saidBy ['barGoer-2']] [AND [saidBy ['barGoer-2']] [saidBy ['barGoer-2']]]] [NOT [NOT [saidBy ['barGoer-2']]]]]]]] [AND [randomDecision] [NOT [saidBy ['barGoer-2']]]]]]]]

which simplifies to:

[previous [previous [NOT [AND [saidBy ['barGoer-2']] [NOT [AND [saidBy ['barGoer-6']] [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-6']]]]]

substituting the talk expressions from bar goers 2 and 6 in week 98 gives:

[previous [previous [NOT [AND [greaterThan [1] [1]] [NOT [AND [[greaterThan [maxPopulation] [maxPopulation]]] [wentLastWeek ['barGoer-6']]]]]

which simplifies, at last, to:

True

Even though the above trace is complex, it still ignores several important causal factors: it does not show the evolutionary processes that produce the action and talk genes for each agent at each week; it does not show the interplay of the agent's actions and communications upon events and hence the evaluation of expressions (and hence which is chosen next by all agents); and in simplifying the expressions at each stage I have tacitly ignored the potential effects of the parts of the expressions that are logically redundant under this particular train of events. Even given these caveats the action of barGoer-6 at week 100 was determined by a total of 11 expressions: its choice of the action expression shown; the talk expressions from bar goers 3 and 4 in week 100; the action expressions from bar goers 3, 4 and 7 in week 99; the talk expressions from barGoer-3 in week 99; the action expressions from barGoers 7 an 9 in week 98; and the talk expressions from bar goers 2 and 6 in week 98!

On the other hand it is difficult to find models of the behaviour of barGoer-6 which do not involve the complex web of causation that occurs between the agents. It is not simplistically dependent on other particular agents (with or without different time lags) but on the other hand is not merely random. This agent epitomises, in a reasonably demonstrable way, social embeddedness.

Capturing Social Embeddedness: a constructivist approach - Bruce Edmonds - 30 OCT 98

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