Complexes

We apply game theory to a vehicular traffic model to study the effect of driver strategies on traffic flow. The resulting model inherits the realistic dynamics achieved by a two-lane traffic model and aims to incorporate phenomena caused by driver-driver interactions. To achieve this goal, a game-theoretic description of driver interaction was developed. This game-theoretic formalization allows one to model different lane-changing behaviors and to keep track of mobility performance. We simulate the evolution of cooperation, traffic flow, and mobility performance for different modeled behaviors. The analysis of these results indicates a mobility optimization process achieved by drivers’ interactions. Cortés-Berrueco LE, Gershenson C, Stephens CR (2016) Traffic Games: Modeling Freeway Traffic with Game Theory. PLoS ONE 11 (11): e0165381. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0165381

With the recent refugee wave from countries with a Muslim majority, we have been flooded by a wave of fear-fueled propaganda against them. Muslims treat their women badly. Muslims are violent. Muslims are this, Muslims are that. The Koran says this, the Koran says that. Europe is not what it used to be, it is getting full of Muslims. After living four years in Brussels and dealing with plenty of Moroccans and Turks, these clichés never matched my experience. I teach that science has flourished and been repressed in Muslim and Christian countries at different epochs, so the obstacle has been not so much the religion but how the institutions use a religion. Just like Jihadists use Islam to promote their agenda, you can interpret other texts for your own ends, and then you have Nazism and the KKK. Humanism and reason should be beyond religions. But the Koran says kill all the infidels. And the Bible says kill all the blasphemous. It is true that terrorists groups are using Islam to brai...

Cities are changing constantly. All urban systems face different conditions from day to day. Even when averaged regularities can be found, urban systems will be more efficient if they can adapt to changes at the same speeds at which these occur. Technology can assist humans in achieving this adaptation. Inspired by cybernetics, we propose a description of cities as adaptive systems. We identify three main components: information, algorithms, and agents, which we illustrate with current and future examples. The implications of adaptive cities are manifold, with direct impacts on mobility, sustainability, resilience, governance, and society. Still, the potential of adaptive cities will not depend so much on technology as on how we use it. Adaptive Cities: A Cybernetic Perspective on Urban Systems Carlos Gershenson, Paolo Santi, Carlo Ratti http://arxiv.org/abs/1609.02000

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 The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has an open call for postdoctoral fellowships to start in  March 1st, 2017 . 

Candidates should have obtained a PhD degree within the last three years and be under 36 years, both to the date of the beginning of the fellowship.

 The area of interests of candidates should fall within complex systems, artificial life, information, evolution, cognition, robotics, and/or philosophy.

 Interested candidates should send CV and a tentative project/research interests (1 paragraph) to cgg-at-unam.mx by  Monday, June 13th  (paperwork has to be made before the end of June).  Postdoctoral fellowships are between one and two years (after renewal).
 Spanish is not a requisite.
 Accepted candidates would be working at the Computer Science Department ( http://turing.iimas.unam.mx  ) of the IIMAS ( http://www.iimas.unam.mx  ), and/or at the Center for Compl...

Urban mobility systems are composed multiple elements with strong interactions, i.e. their future is co-determined by the state of other elements. Thus, studying components in isolation, i.e. using a reductionist approach, is inappropriate. I propose five recommendations to improve urban mobility based on insights from the scientific study of complex systems: use adaptation over prediction, regulate interactions to avoid friction, use sensors to recover real time information, develop adaptive algorithms to exploit that information, and deploy agents to act on the urban environment. Improving Urban Mobility by Understanding its Complexity Carlos Gershenson http://arxiv.org/abs/1603.04267

ALife XV: The Fifteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems will take place in Cancun, Mexico, on July 4-8, 2016.  The deadline for paper and abstract submissions was extended to  February 29th . This extension is final.  All accepted contributions will be published by MIT Press as open online proceedings. There are two submission options: Full papers (8 pages) should report on new, unpublished work. Extended abstracts (2 pages) can report on previously published work, but offer a new perspective on that work. Submitted or novel work is also acceptable for abstracts. Accepted works will be selected as oral or poster presentations. Submissions can be made also for a  Special Session on ALife and Society . The  Call for Artworks  is out. Accepted Workshops and Tutorials will be announced soon. We are happy to announce that our keynote speakers cover a wide variety of topics and include  R...