I have had a chance to talk to Mitchell Resnick from time to time, and use
his modeling tool, called Starlogo, in both my own research and as one of
the topics in a class I teach about modeling. I respect Mitchell's views
and find his work insightful. My impression is that when he writes about
'centralized' thinking he is more often describing folk psychologies that
target complex phenomena rather than the theories out of cognitive science
that deal with cognition of individuals in isolation. My interpretation is
consistent with the example given of birds flocking without a leader, or
perhaps Mitchell's favorite, which is the creation of termite mounds. My
interpretation is a weak claim because I have not made a complete study of
Mitchell's work.
It is interesting to contrast the Starlogo modeling environment with how
Jim W. uses Mitchells analysis to support the claim that sociocultural
analysis should avoid individualistic reductionism. A model created with
Starlogo is what some call an 'individual-based' model, because the way it
works is to simulate the global behavior of a large number of interacting
autonomous agents, by putting all the agents together to interact with each
other according to simple rules that each agent follows. In a way, this
provides a synthesis of individual and collective views.
What do I mean by synthesis? The agents in starlogo follow simple programs
called 'procedures'. Mostly each individual has the same program as every
other individual, although there are means to make different 'breeds' of
creatures. Each breed can follow its own set of procedures. As each
agent follows the procedures for its breed, excuting them according to the
conditions it encounters locally, the model is played out dynamically over
time - which is called a simulation. The collective (or individual )
'behaviors' of agents are generally not deterministic - it is very
difficult with large numbers of agents to predict the collective behavior,
or even to predict the behavior of a single agent in a collective.
I find the approach reminiscent of the kinetic theory in physics, where,
for example, one might start with the rules for how a gas molecule
interacts with other gas molecules together with some mathematical
formulations to describe collective behavior such as the distribution of
molecular speeds with temperature. In Starlogo, the computer replaces the
mathematics. Yes, decentralization does seem strangely reductionist when
viewed this way. It does not bother me to say that starlogo is an
individual-based reductionist approach that is useful for describing
decentralized behavior. I think what Jim missed in chapter one is a close
look into how Mitchell and other folks at the Media lab realized their
decentralized prespective with the creation of one of their modeling
environments.
One can include an individual-based, reductionist approach that does not
focus on one individual, but rather on the playing out of the interactions
among those individuals in a collective manner. Yes, there are severe
limitation with focussing on one individual in isolation from the social
and physical enviroment, but those problems are due to this one form of
individualistic reductionism, and hence can not be generally considered a
condemnation.
Here are some URLs to inquire more about the tools and methods:
Make sure your browser has java enabled to view this implementation of boids:
http://hmt.com/cwr/boids.html
The starlogo page, which will lead to you a downloadable program for the
mac - a PC version is available as an alpha release:
http://lcs.www.media.mit.edu/people/starlogo/index.html
Similar tools such as 'Swarm' have been developed at the Sante Fe institute.
Bill Barowy, Associate Professor
Technology in Education
Lesley College, 29 Everett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-2790
Phone: 617-349-8168 / Fax: 617-349-8169
http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/wbarowy/Barowy.html
_______________________
"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself
and watch yourself softly become the author of something beautiful."
[Norman Maclean in "A river runs through it."]