Concurrent Modeling of Alternative Worlds with Polyagents

Abstract

Agent-based modeling is a powerful tool for systems modeling. Instantiating each domain entity with an agent captures many aspects of system dynamics and interactions that other modeling techniques do not. However, an entity's agent can execute only one trajectory per run, and does not sample the alternative trajectories accessible to the entity in the evolution of a realistic system. Averaging over multiple runs does not capture the range of individual interactions involved. We address these problems with a new modeling entity, the polyagent, which represents each entity with a single persistent avatar supported by a swarm of transient ghosts. Each ghost interacts with the ghosts of other avatars through digital pheromone fields, capturing a wide range of alternative trajectories in a single run that can proceed faster than real time.