The agents that compose an ABM are individual, computational entities with state variables, and values (I.e., age, height, income, etc.) They often also have a visible component (e.g., being visible on a computer screen.)

Agents (in ABMs)

A computer program developed by Uri Wilensky for ABM.

NetLogo

- 1) Complex phenomena can be programmed using simple rules
- 2) Randomness in agent behavior can lead to predictable population behavior
- 3) Complex patterns do not need a leader to orchestrate the behavior (self-organization)
- 4) Different models can show vastly different aspects of the world

Four Characteristic Features of ABMs

A model of some phenomenon that is constructed through agents and their interactions with one another. They are uniquely equipped to model complex systems and are usually easier to understand than equivalent mathematical models.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

A computational entity (object or individual) with properties and actions that behaves autonomously.

Agents 

A change in the structuration of the expressed knowledge that results from some change in representational infrastructure. (I.e., the shift from Roman numerals to Hindu Arabic numerals and its effects on math.)

Restructuration

Computational models of complex systems are computer simulations designed to study how system-level behaviors and macroscopic patterns emerge from the interactions of many individual components. By encoding the rules of interaction at the micro-level, these models allow researchers to explore complex dynamics and emergent phenomena that are often impossible to predict using traditional mathematical equations alone.

Computational Models of Complex Systems

Badham, Jennifer. Agent-Based Modelling for the Self Learner. MIT Press., 2015. 

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