Complexity Digest 2007.02 - 05
08-Jan-2007
Social Sciences: Life's A Game, Nature
Excerpts: Manipulating society has traditionally been the preserve of politicians and the gods. Does the current boom in virtual worlds give social scientists and economists an opportunity to join them? (...)
His vision is nothing if not ambitious: to create societies with the intention of experimenting on them. The societies will exist only inside computers, with real people living some of their lives through characters (avatars) in these virtual worlds. (...) He and other researchers want to tweak the rules of those worlds so they can study everything from democracy to monetary policy.
- Source: Social Sciences: Life's A Game
[ http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v445/n7123/full/445018a.html ], Jim Giles, DOI: 10.1038/445018a, Nature 445, 18-20, 07/01/04