Re: Formal models of multi-agent systems

[David Sumpter]

Dr. Christopher Landauer wrote:
>for my purposes, if a question is easier to answer by "running" the simulation,
>then the formalism is lacking in analytic power,
>and if it is easier to answer by some kind of mathematical analysis,
>then it (the formalism) is strong enough (for some questions)

I realise you said `for your purposes' but I'm a bit surprised at this 
statement. When we make a formalistation of Swarm systems it is surely not 
essential that we create something to answer all the queations we wanted to 
answer with the simulation? Whats the point in having a simulation (or Swarm) 
if 
we have that formalism then?

I find formalisations are of most use when proving that your system makes sense 
and is consistent. For example checking an environment does not have any 
strange 
effects on the behaviour of agents. With CCS I imagine that we could check that 
there was certain areas of an environment that an agent could never enter 
(something like deadlock). If in our simulation we observed that no agents 
entered that area then without that formalisation and proof we may have jumped 
(wrongly) to conclusions about the agents being the cause of this behaviour.

David Sumpter,
UMIST.


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