Syllabus, Fall 2002 for: Agents, Games & Evolution OPIM 325 (Simulation)

Transcription

1 Syllabus, Fall 2002 for: Agents, Games & Evolution OPIM 325 (Simulation) sok/teaching/age/f02/ Steven O. Kimbrough August 1, Brief Description Agents, Games & Evolution (OPIM 325) is about recent and developing results in our fundamental understanding of strategic behavior. We will focus on the design and behavior of artificial agents in strategic (or game-theoretic) situations. We will be especially concerned with strategic contexts of commercial import, such as bargaining and repeated play. We shall dwell on effective agent learning techniques, including evolutionary methods and reinforcement learning. A main theme in the course is the inherent difficulty, even unknowability, of the problem of strategy acquisition. We will rely mainly on computational experiments (or simulations), in distinction to analytic mathematical methods, for studying strategy formation and strategic behavior (either by individuals or by groups). Much of the class work will be devoted to discussing and interpreting computational experiments that have been reported in the literature, or that can be undertaken with tools provided in class. Computer programming is neither required nor discouraged for the course. Students completing the course can expect to come away with: Solid understanding of what is known and what is not known about the problem of designing procedures for strategic behavior, Familiarity with the principal methods, and results of applying those methods, for design of artificial agents in strategic contexts, and Deepened appreciation for complex, adaptive systems. 1

2 2 Instructor Professor Steven O. Kimbrough. Office hours: 9:00 12:00 on Tuesdays and by appointment. Contact information: University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School, Jon M. Huntsman Hall (JMHH), Suite 500, Room 565, 3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA , , 3 Grading 30% Term project 25% Mid-term exam 25% Final exam 20% Class participation & assignments 4 Resources Course Home Page (HomePage): sok/teaching/age/f02/ ReadingsOnLine: sok/teaching/age/f02/age-ol-readings.html Notes for Agents, Games, and Evolution by Steve Kimbrough (hereafter: AGEbook) will appear on the HomePage. 5 Class Schedule 1. (R:09/05) First class. Introduction to the course. Read: Bulk Pack #3; AGEbook, Introduction. Recommended: J. Borwein, P. Borwein, R. Girgensohn, and S. Parnes (October 16, 1995). Experimental Mathematics: A Discussion. See ReadingsOnLine. Also recommended: AGEbook, Computational Explanation. Part I: Basics of Strategy-Centric Agents 2. (T:09/10) The problem of cooperation. Axelrod s experiments with strategies for iterated (repeated) prisoner s dilemma (IPD). Fundamental characteristics of IPD. Read: [1, Chapters 1 3, Appendices A & B]; AGEbook, Axelrod s IPD Tournaments. 2

3 3. (R:09/12) Behavior of plants and animals. Read: [1, Chapters 4 5] and Bulk Pack Reading #1; AGEbook, Notes: Maynard Smith & ESS and IPD Applications: War and Biology. 4. (T:09/17) Evolution of the social contract. Read: [14, Chapters 1 2]; AGEbook, Skyrms and the Social Contract. 5. (R:09/19) Evolution of the social contract. Read: [14, Chapters 3 4]; AGEbook, Skyrms and the Social Contract. 6. (T:09/24) Evolution of the social contract. Read: [14, Chapters 5 & Postscript]; AGEbook, Skyrms and the Social Contract. 7. (R:09/26) Beyond Prisoner s Dilemma Stag hunt and other games. Read Skyrms, The Stag Hunt [15]. Part II: Evolution, Rationality & Games 8. (T:10/01) Evolution and Equilibria 9. (R:10/03) Surprises and the Surprise Exam Part III: Computational Principles & Applications 10. (T:10/08) Genetic algorithms and Evolution Programming Read: Bulk Pack Reading #8, [9, Chapter 1]; AGEbook, Introducing Genetic Algorithms. 11. (R:10/10) Undecidability, computational irreducibility, the halting problem. Background reading (recommended): AGEbook, Coding & Computation. 12. (T:10/15) The Game of Life and cellular automata (CA). Read: Bulk Pack Readings #2, #12; AGEbook, Cellular Automata and the Game of Life. In-class demonstrations. 13. (R:10/17) Genetic Programming etc. Read: Bulk Pack Reading # (T:10/22) Midterm exam. In class. 15. (R:10/24) The Decentralized Mindset. Read: Bulk Pack Reading #9. 3

4 16. (T:10/29) Agent programming environments. (StarLogo, Swarm, etc.) and Evolutionary Game Theory. Read: Bulk Pack Reading # (R:10/31) Spatialized games. Spatialization Read: Bulk Pack Readings #4, # (T:11/05) Spatialized games. Read: Bulk Pack Reading # (R:11/07) Societies of CA (Cellular Automata). Read: [3, Chapters I III]; AGEbook, GAS: Growing Artificial Societies. 20. (T:11/12) Societies of CA. Read: [3, Chapters IV VI]; AGEbook, GAS: Growing Artificial Societies. Identity-Oriented Agents 21. (R:11/14) Decentralization Again. Ecological Rationality. Identity-Oriented Agents. Read: Bulk Pack Reading #11; AGEbook, Identity-Oriented Agents. Recommended: # (T:11/19) Dynamic programming. Read: Instructor s handout. 23. (R:11/21) Reinforcement Learning. Reading: AGEbook, Reinforcement Learning. Recommended reading: Bulk Pack Reading #6. See ReadingsOnLine. 24. (T:11/26) LCS: Learning Classifier Systems Thanksgiving, 11/28/02; no class 25. (T:12/3) Applications of Learning Classifier Systems 26. (R:12/5) Last class. Darwin machines and Darwinian theories of mind. Reading: AGEbook, Dual Interpretations. 4

5 6 Required Books 1. Robert Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation, [1]. 2. Joshua Epstein and Rob Axtell, Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up, [3]. 3. B. Skyrms, Evolution of the Social Contract, [14]. 7 Bulk Pack Readings 1. John Maynard Smith, from Evolution and the Theory of Games [8, Chapters 1 3, pp. 1 39]. 2. Berlekamp, Conway, and Guy, from Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays, Volume 2 [2, Chapter 25, What Is Life?, pp ]. 3. Gerd Gigerenzer and Reinhard Selten, Rethinking Rationality in [4]. 4. Patrick Grim, Gary Mar, and Paul St. Denis, The Philosophical Computer: Exploratory Essays in Philosophical Computer Modeling, [5, Chapters 4 5, pp ]. 5. John R. Koza, Forrest H. Bennett III, David Andre, and Martin A. Keane, Genetic Programming III: Darwinian Invention and Problem Solving, [7, Chapter 2, pp ]. 6. Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Michael L. Littman, and Andrew W. Moore, Reinforcement Learning: A Survey. ( [6]. Available at ReadingsOnLine. 7. Epstein and Axtell, Growing Artificial Societies, [3]. 8. Selections from M. Mitchell, An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms, [9], Chapter 1, Genetic Algorithms: An Overview, pages Chapters 1, Foundations, and 4, Reflections, from Mitchel Resnick, Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams [10, Chapter 1, pp. 3 19; Chapter 4, pp ] 10. Thomas C. Schelling, Micromotives and Macrobehavior, [11]. 11. Reinhard Selten, What Is Bounded Rationality? in [12]. 12. Karl Sigmund, Chapter 2, Self-Replicating Automata and Artificial Life, pages 8 39 in [13]. 13. Karl Sigmund, Chapter 7, Evolutionary Game Theory, pages in [13]. 14. Karl Sigmund, Chapter 8, Reciprocity and the Evolution of Cooperation, pages in [13]. 5

6 References [1] Robert Axelrod. The Evolution of Cooperation. Basic Books, Inc., New York, NY, [2] Elwyn R. Berlekamp, John H. Conway, and Richard K. Guy. Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays, volume 2: Games in Particular. Academic Press, New York, NY, [3] Joshua M. Epstein and Robert Axtell. Growing Artificial Societies. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, [4] Gerd Gigerenzer and Reinhard Selten. Rethinking rationality. In Gerd Gigerenzer and Reinhard Selten, editors, Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox, pages MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, [5] Patrick Grim, Gary Mar, and Paul St. Denis. The Philosophical Computer: Exploratory Essays in Philosophical Computer Modeling. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, [6] Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Michael L. Littman, and Andrew W. Moore. Reinforcement learning: A survey. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 4: , [7] John R. Koza, Forrest H. Bennett III, David Andre, and Martin A. Keane. Genetic Programming III: Darwinian Invention and Problem Solving. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco, CA, [8] John Maynard Smith. Evolution and the Theory of Games. Cambridge Univesity Press, New York, NY, [9] Melanie Mitchell. An Introductin to Genetic Algorithms. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, [10] Mitchel Resnick. Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, [11] Thomas C. Schelling. Micromotives and Macrobehavior, chapter Micromotives and Macrobehavior, pages W.W. Norton & Company, New York, NY, [12] Reinhard Selten. What is bounded rationality? In Gerd Gigerenzer and Reinhard Selten, editors, Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox, pages MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, [13] Karl Sigmund. Games of Life: Explorations in Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, [14] Brian Skyrms. Evolution of the Social Contract. Cambridge University Press, New York NY,

7 [15] Brian Skyrms. The stag hunt. Proceeding and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, $Id: age-syllabus.tex,v /08/01 17:38:58 sok Exp $ 7