Nonlinear Dynamics, Mathematical Biology, And Social Science: Wise Use Of Alternative Therapies

These lectures develop simple models of complex social processes using nonlinear dynamics and mathematical biology. Dynamical analogies between seemingly disparate social and biological phenomenarevolutions and epidemics, arms races, and ecosystem dynamicsare revealed and exploited.Nonlinear Dynamics, Mathematical Biology, and Social Scienceinvites social scientists to relaxin some cases abandonthe predominant assumption of perfectly informed utility maximization and explore social dynamics from such perspectives as epidemiology and predator-prey theory. The volume includes a concentrated course on nonlinear dynamical systems.

Joshua M. Epstein is a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at The Brookings Institution and a Member of the External Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from M.I.T., and has taught Complex Systems at Princeton and the Santa Fe Institute Summer School. His books include Measuring Military Power; Conventional Force Reductions: A Dynamic Assessment; and, with coauthor Robert Axtell, Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife Melissa and their daughter Anna Matilda.