Is There a Physics of Society? January 10-12, 2008, Santa Fe NM
Organizers: Michelle Girvan (University of Maryland) and Aaron Clauset (Santa Fe Institute)
Agenda: Thursday Friday Saturday
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
- 7:00pm - 9:00pm Welcome reception (Hotel Santa Fe)
Thursday, January 10, 2008
- 8:30am Welcome, by Aaron Clauset
- 8:40 - 9:15 Introductory remarks by Geoffrey West (homepage)
- Session One, led by Michael Fisher (homepage)
- 9:20 - 10:00 Mark Buchanan (abstract, slides, homepage)
- Prospects for "social physics"
- 10:12 - 10:56 D. Eric Smith (abstract, slides, homepage)
- Good social science as good physics?
- 11:03 - 11:17 Break
- 11:17 - 11:54 Rob Axtell (abstract, slides, homepage)
- Interacting Particles vs. Interacting Agents: Where is the Cut-off?
- 12:05 - 12:45 Discussion
- 12:45 - 1:40 Lunch
- 1:40 A few comments by Aaron
- Session Two, led by Matthew Salganik (homepage)
- 1:43 - 2:25 John M. Roberts Jr. (abstract, slides, homepage)
- Examining the modern history of interaction between social science and physics
- 2:35 - 3:18 Lars-Erik Cederman (abstract, slides, homepage)
- Toward a non-equilibrium approach to political violence
- 3:34 - 3:45 Break
- 3:45 - 4:29 Frank Schweitzer (abstract, slides, homepage)
- Enhancing social interaction: preferences, similarities, and trust
- 4:37 - 5:15 Discussion
- 7:00pm Dinner (Coyote Cafe)
Friday, January 11, 2008
- 8:55am - 9:00 Introductory remarks by Michelle
- Session Three, led by Cosma Shalizi (homepage)
- 9:00 - 9:44 Luis Bettencourt (abstract, slides, homepage)
- Elements of a coarse-grained quantitative theory of Society: Physics perhaps, but like you’ve never seen it before
- 9:54 - 10:34 David Gibson (abstract, slides, homepage)
- Events and Their Aftermath
- 10:50 - 11:00 Break
- 11:00 - 11:41 Matthew Salganik (abstract, slides, homepage)
- The puzzling nature of success in cultural markets
- 12:00 - 12:43 Discussion
- 12:43 - 1:35 Lunch
- Session Four, led by Luis Bettencourt (homepage)
- 1:35 - 2:20 Dirk Brockmann (abstract, slides, homepage)
- New Perspectives on Global Human Traffic: Scaling Laws, Emergent Geographic Communities, Geocaching and Trackable Items
- 2:24 - 3:00 Michael Gastner (abstract, slides, homepage)
- The Price of Anarchy in Transportation Networks
- 3:10 - 3:37 Break
- 3:37 - 4:19 Matthew O. Jackson (abstract, slides, homepage)
- An Economic Model of Friendships: Understanding the Roles of Choice and Chance in Social Network Formation
- 4:31 - 5:10pm Discussion
Saturday, January 12, 2008
- 8:55am - 9:00 Introductory remarks by Aaron
- Session Five, led by Rob Axtell (homepage)
- 9:00 - 9:41 Dirk Helbing (abstract, slides, homepage)
- Modeling and Simulating Social Systems from the Bottom Up
- 9:52 - 10:32 Mark Handcock (abstract, slides, homepage)
- A Longitudinal Model of Network Formation: Heider's theory of Balance vs Simmel's triadic formation
- 10:41 - 11:00 Break
- 11:01 - 11:42 Petter Holme (abstract, slides, homepage)
- Simple models of teens, diplomats, religious cults and more
- 11:51 - 12:10 Session discussion
- 12:10 - 12:36 Discussion of persistent theme, with Michelle
- 12:36 - 1:37 Lunch
- Session Six, led by Larry Bloom (homepage)
- 1:37 - 2:18 Cosma Shalizi (abstract, slides, homepage)
- Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Econophysics?
- 2:28 - 3:10 Doyne Farmer (abstract, slides, homepage)
- Structure and strategy in financial markets: What can we understand without making detailed models of human behavior?
- 3:20 - 3:34 Break
- 3:35 - 4:15 Carter Butts (abstract, slides, homepage)
- Is There a Viable Social Physics? Yes, No, and In Part
- 4:25 - 5:00 More discussion of big themes, prospects of social physics, problems with journals
- 5:00pm Concluding remarks by Michelle