Beyond just looking at how network structure is created, simulations can be used to explore the processes that take place on top of an existing network. Such simulations can be used to anticipate the effects of changing network structure on a complex system, or to predict problems, such as traffic jams and power outages.
This section introduces one type of simulation: agent-based modeling. Agent-based modeling is a common technique in complex systems that simulates multiple objects called agents. Each agent is described by its state. Depending on the application, a state might be a single number, or a complex data structure. As the simulation proceeds, each agent interacts with other agents, and their states are updated based on those interactions. Sometimes, all agents are allowed to interact with all other agents. But this is a book about networks, and in...
