"The high levels of intelligence seen in humans, other primates, certain cetaceans and birds remain a major puzzle for evolutionary biologists, anthropologists and psychologists. It has long been held that social interactions provide the selection pressures necessary for the evolution of advanced cognitive abilities (the ‘social intelligence hypothesis’), and in recent years decision-making in the context of cooperative social interactions has been conjectured to be of particular importance. Here we use an artificial neural network model to show that selection for efficient decision-making in cooperative dilemmas can give rise to selection pressures for greater cognitive abilities, and that intelligent strategies can themselves select for greater intelligence, leading to a Machiavellian arms race. Our results provide mechanistic support for the social intelligence hypothesis, highlight the potential importance of cooperative behaviour in the evolution of intelligence and may help us to explain the distribution of cooperation with intelligence across taxa."

" Cathode, a "vintage terminal emulator" for Mac. It simulates phosphor burn, screen curvature, glare, refresh rates, beam desyncrhonization, jitter, and other effects common to mini-computer terminals of yore."

"This paper develops the concepts and methods of a process we will call ldquoalignment of computational modelsrdquo or ldquodockingrdquo for short. Alignment is needed to determine whether two models can produce the same results, which in turn is the basis for critical experiments and for tests of whether one model can subsume another. We illustrate our concepts and methods using as a target a model of cultural transmission built by Axelrod. For comparison we use the Sugarscape model developed by Epstein and Axtell."

So in the interests of stimulating this debate, I'm reproducing here Helbing's list of websites that are potential sources of data for an Earth Simulator. It makes for fascinating, if unnerving, reading:

Fortunately, in a paper to be published in the Review of Economic Studies, researchers from MIT’s Departments of Economics and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science have demonstrated that, as networks of people grow larger, they’ll usually tend to converge on an accurate understanding of information distributed among them, even if individual members of the network can observe only their nearby neighbors. A few opinionated people with large audiences can slow that convergence, but in the long run, they’re unlikely to stop it.

CASOS brings together computer science, dynamic network analysis and the empirical study of complex socio-technical systems. Computational and social network techniques are combined to develop a better understanding of the fundamental principles of organizing, coordinating, managing and destabilizing systems of intelligent adaptive agents (human and artificial) engaged in real tasks at the team, organizational or social level. Whether the research involves the development of metrics, theories, computer simulations, toolkits, or new data analysis techniques advances in computer science are combined with a deep understanding of the underlying cognitive, social, political, business and policy issues.

The Fermi Paradox is the apparent contradiction between the high probability extraterrestrial civilizations' existence and the lack of contact with such civilizations. In general, solutions to Fermi's paradox come down to either estimation of Drake equation parameters i.e. our guesses about the potential number of extraterrestrial civilizations or simulation of civilizations development in the universe. We consider a new type of cellular automata, that allows to analyze Fermi paradox

Bezsudnov and Snarskii even derive an inequality that a universe must satisfy to become civilised. This, they say, is analogous to the famous Drake equation which attempts to quantify the number of other contactable civilisations in the universe right now.

The OpenABM Consortium is a group of researchers, educators, and professionals with a common goal - improving the way we develop, share, and utilize agent based models. We are currently developing a model archive to preserve and maintain the digital artifacts and source code comprising an agent based model.

Random numbers play a crucial role in science and industry. Many numerical methods require the use of random numbers, in particular the Monte Carlo method. Therefore it is of paramount importance to have efficient random number generators. The differences, advantages and disadvantages of true and pseudo random number generators are discussed with an emphasis on the intrinsic details of modern and fast pseudo random number generators.

Situations where individuals have to contribute to joint efforts or share scarce resources are ubiquitous. Yet, without proper mechanisms to ensure cooperation, the evolutionary pressure to maximize individual success tends to create a tragedy of the commons (such as over-fishing or the destruction of our environment). This contribution addresses a number of related puzzles of human behavior with an evolutionary game theoretical approach as it has been successfully used to explain the behavior of other biological species many times, from bacteria to vertebrates. Our agent-based model distinguishes individuals applying four different behavioral strategies: non-cooperative individuals (“defectors”), cooperative individuals abstaining from punishment efforts (called “cooperators” or “second-order free-riders”), cooperators who punish non-cooperative behavior (“moralists”), and defectors, who punish other defectors despite being non-cooperative themselves (“immoralists”).

Since its original publication in 2000, Game Theory Evolving has been considered the best textbook on evolutionary game theory. This completely revised and updated second edition of Game Theory Evolving contains new material and shows students how to apply game theory to model human behavior in ways that reflect the special nature of sociality and individuality. The textbook continues its in-depth look at cooperation in teams, agent-based simulations, experimental economics, the evolution and diffusion of preferences, and the connection between biology and economics.

TeraGrid is an open scientific discovery infrastructure combining leadership class resources at eleven partner sites to create an integrated, persistent computational resource.

Using high-performance network connections, the TeraGrid integrates high-performance computers, data resources and tools, and high-end experimental facilities around the country. Currently, TeraGrid resources include more than a petaflop of computing capability and more than 30 petabytes of online and archival data storage, with rapid access and retrieval over high-performance networks. Researchers can also access more than 100 discipline-specific databases. With this combination of resources, the TeraGrid is the world's largest, most comprehensive distributed cyberinfrastructure for open scientific research.

Most of my research is focused around the Globus project™, a joint research project with Ian Foster's group at Argonne National Laboratory. Globus is developing the basic mechanisms and infrastructure for grids. One major result is the development of the Globus Toolkit®, the underlying infrastructure used by most major grid projects.

Research interests: Scientific Computing, Parallel Algorithms, Parallel Performance Analysis, Computational Aerodynamics, Computational Radiation Transport, Computational Combustion, Optimization.

So a couple of years ago I produced a very simple little model. It suggests that serious games are great for learning because:
1. They provide motivation
2. They offer varying degrees of simulation
3. They tie experiences together through narration

by David Chalmers

We are pleased to announce the publication of the third edition of our text, Introduction to Computer Simulation Methods by Harvey Gould, Jan Tobochnik, and Wolfgang Christian, Addison-Wesley (2006). The text introduces Java programming by example in the context of learning physics. It contains many novel applications, is accessible to a wide range of readers, develops good programming habits, and encourages student experimentation. Our goal is to teach students enough tools so that they can use computer simulations as a method of discovery in physics.

Nomic is a game created in 1982 by philosopher Peter Suber in which the rules of the game include mechanisms for the players to change those rules, usually beginning through a system of democratic voting.

emergentTM (a major rewrite of PDP ) is a comprehensive simulation environment for creating complex, sophisticated models of the brain and cognitive processes using neural network models. These same networks can also be used for all kinds of other more pragmatic tasks, like predicting the stock market or analyzing data.

The advice I give my clients is to first, think initially more of a lab. For the first iteration of a serious game/interactive simulation, first worry about creating an experience that will really teach people who care about the material (either intrinsically or extrinsically) how to better understand it. I would go one step further and suggest that the content should be biased towards "learning to do" over "learning to know" (aka how to apply the material in the real world) but that is my own design bias.

Interesting development but the games described are as much fun as the artificial icebreakers at the start of motivational meetings.

Games for Change (G4C) provides support, visibility and shared resources to organizations and individuals using digital games for social change.

Annotated link http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.unice.fr%2Fsg%2Fresources%2Fbibliographies.htm

ISAGA is an international organization for scientists and practitioners developing and using simulation, gaming and related methodologies.

Simulation & Gaming: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Theory, Practice and Research (S&G) is the world's foremost scientific review devoted to academic and applied issues in the increasingly popular methodology of simulation/gaming as used in education,

As long as both schools and corporate training programs can't teach people how to do, educators will be trapped in a ghetto of being increasingly irrelevant, having to spin or misstate their results, justify an irrelevant curricula, and live with less and

In these games, you play the part of an indecisive person, usually obscured in identity, who's at a critical juncture of his life but lacking any real direction of where to go next. You are introduced to a variety of characters, and among them are a numbe

This game is an accelerated simulation of the process of gaining attention online (acquiring more readers, friends, hits, etc.). The goal of the game is to collect the most attention

Featuring an all-new, revolutionary feature set, SimCity Societies allows you to create your own kinds of cities and shape their cultures and environments. Make your cities green or polluted, contemporary or futuristic, rural or urban. Create an artistic

modeling evolution as a search of a fitness landscape. It's pretty common to model evolution that way but it is worth pointing out that while search is a useful model of evolution, it's far from a perfect o

agent based modeling software

network for earthquake engineering simulation

Links to some intriguing large-scale computer simulation projects

Simulation software suite, macintosh, windows, solaris

Python based discrete simulation library.