Abstract
Ideas derived from social simulation models can directly inform the design of distributed computer systems. This is particularly the case when systems are “open”, in the sense of having no centralised control, where traditional design approaches struggle. In this chapter, we indicate the key features of social simulation work that are valuable for distributed systems design. We also discuss the differences between social and biological models in this respect. We give examples of socially inspired systems from the currently active area of peer-to-peer systems, and finally we discuss open areas for future research in the field.
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The interested reader could look at the recent series of the IEEE Self-Adaptive and Self-Organising systems (SASO) conference proceedings, which started in 2007 and have been organised annually (http://www.saso-conference.org/). To get an idea of current work in social simulation, a good place to start is the open access online Journal Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (JASSS); see http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/JASSS.html.
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Hales, D. (2017). Distributed Computer Systems. In: Edmonds, B., Meyer, R. (eds) Simulating Social Complexity. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66948-9_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66948-9_23
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