Introduction: Regressing Your Inner Hedgehog

          

Lecture: Why Models?  

                  

 

Vortices and Volcanoes:  Models of Aggregation

 

Model 1: The Standing Ovation Problem

                   Tools:  Behavioral Rules, Signals

                   Concepts: Tipping, Charisma

 

Model 2: The Ketchup Question

                   Tool: Lyaponuv Functions

                   Concept: Multiple Equilibria, Ranked Equilibria

 

Model 3: Those French

                   Tool: probability theory

                   Concept: Time to convergence

 

Model 4: Tipping

                   Tools: Threshold functions

                   Concept: Micromotives, Macrobehavior

 

Model 5: Red Hat Green Hat

                   Tools: Conditional Probability

                   Concept: sorting (dlct9)

 

Model 6: Do I Live Here

                   Tools: Lyaponuv Function

                   Concepts: Micromotives, Macrobehavior

 

Model 7: Jimmy John has a Potbelly

                   Tools: Response Functions

                   Concepts: Externalities

 

 

 

Things That Go Bump:  Models of Competition

 

Model 8 Call Me!

                   Tools: Auction Theory

                   Concepts: Externalities

 

Model 9: Racing to the Bottom

                   Tools: Response functions, signals

                   Concepts: equilibria, hedonic treadmills, positional goods

 

Model 10: Looking Back

                   Tools: Backward Induction

                   Concepts: Equilibrium, dominant strategies

 

Model 11: Perplexed Inmates

                   Tools: Game Theory

                   Concepts: Pareto Dominance

 

Model 12: DonÕt I Know You?

                   Tools: Repeated Games

                   Concepts: Reputation

 

Model 13: Colonel Blotto

                   Tools: Game Theory

                   Concept: impossibility of rankings

 

Model 14: Ice Cream on the Beach

                   Tools: Spatial Voting

                   Concepts: Equilibria, Cycles

 

Model 15: The AeroCycle

                   Tools: Preference Theory

                   Concepts: independence of irrelevant alternatives, unanimity

 

 

Different Wisdom:  Models of Collective Thinking

 

Model 16: The Toolbox

                   Tools: Combinatorics

                   Concept: Context Matters

 

 

Model 17: GaltonÕs Steer

                   Tools: Probability Theory

                   Concepts: Aggregation and error cancelization

 

 

Model 18: Pythagoras Begs to Differ

                   Tools: Interpretations, Squared errors

                   Concepts: negative correlation

 

 

Model 19: Ben and Jerry Mendeleyev

                   Tools: Perspectives

                   Concepts: Rugged Landscapes

 

Model 20: Two Heads

                   Tools: Heuristics

                   Concepts: Local Optima

 

 

 

Getting There: Models of Decision and Learning

 

Model 21: Decision Theory

                   Tools: Probability Theory

                   Concepts: Value of information.

 

Model 22: Creationism vs Evolution

                   Tools: Genetic Algorithms

                   Concepts: Selection, Variation

 

Model 23: March of the Penguins

                   Tools: Search Theory

                   Concepts: Exploration vs Exploitation

 

Model 24: My Brain is a Two Armed Bandit                 Tools: weighting functions

                   Concepts: positive feedbacks

 

 Model 25: Rock Paper Scissors (as youÕve never seen it)

                   Tools: Lattice Games, Replicator Dynamics, Fictitious Play

                   Concepts: Patterns and Cycles

 

Model 26: Punks and Public Goods

                   Tools: Best response functions

                   Concepts: Cultural Learning

 

Model 27: Social learning and Group Selection

                   Tools: Evolutionary Game theory

                   Concepts: Group Selection, Altruism

 

Model 28: Chain of Fools

                   Tools: Hedonic Models, Evolutionary Learning

                   Concepts: Rugged Landscapes

 

 

Sandwich Spread: Models of Networks and Diffusion

 

Model 29: ItÕs a Small World

                   Tools: Network Theory

                   Concepts: neighborhoods, path length

 

Model 30: Barbarians at the Terminal

                   Tools: Power laws

                   Concepts: strategic vs random errors

 

Model 31: Bass Fishing

                   Tools: Diffusion models

                   Concepts: diffusion      

 

Model 32:  To SIR With Love

                   Tools: evolutionary dynamics

                   Concepts: contact structures

 

 

 

When History Matters: Markov and Urn Models

 

Model 33: Happy Children, Good Students

                   Tools: Markov Processes

                   Concept: Ergodicity

 

 

Model 34: The Rule of Six

                   Tools: Non time homogenous Markov Processes

                   Concept: Initial State Dependence

 

 

Model 35: PHAT Polya

                   Tools: Polya Processes

                   Concept: history, set, and state dependence

 

 

Model 36: War of Nutrition

                   Tools: random walks

                   Concept: discounting

 

 

 

Keep it Together: Models of Robustness

 

Model 37: Chestnuts Roasting

                   Tools: Immune system models, Federations

                   Concepts: co-evolution,

 

 

Model 38:  Ethnic Violence

                   Tools: game theory

                   Concepts: Cross cutting cleavages (dlct11)

 

 

Model 39: Banks and Forest Fires

                   Tools: optimization theory, adapation

                   Concepts: phase transitions, critical states