Customer Reviews

Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams: Explorations in Massively Parallel Microworlds

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked up this book while browsing the Computer Science section. The first line on the back cover drew me in: "How does a bird flock keep its movements so graceful and synchronized?" Unfortunately, this question (and others similar) was never really answered in the book. Rather than an intellectual or philosophical discussion of how organized behaviors develop from non-centrally-controlled systems in real life, the book seems to focus on why it happens in simplified computer simulations. The book is really about looking at organized behaviors from a decentralized perspective - using computer simulations to aid in this perspective. (Termite mounds, for example, aren't created by a "seed or lead" termite, they're in fact created by the behaviors common to individual termites, and the interaction of those termites with the environment, as is demonstrated in a simplified computer simulation.)

The book focuses a great deal on workings of the StarLogo programming language, which is not included but is downloadable (more on this later). The programming language allows users to simulate massively parallel systems. The book includes many code samples, programming notes and descriptions of how the simulations progress at run time. Discussions of resulting organized behaviors lie almost completely within the scope of the software simulations, but are very interesting nonetheless (although it will likely leave you wanting more). After only the first simulation (regarding slime mold), I found myself at the computer to download the software. Which brings me to my next point...

You won't find the software at the location specified by the book. It appears that the original StarLogo language was written for the Mac, and was renamed MacStarLogo. (Substitute "macstarlogo" for "~starlogo" in the URL to find the software.) When you get to the Download page, you'll be able to download the software for PC and UNIX as well as for Mac. The PC version (and version 1.1 for Mac, I assume) seems to use a newer or upgraded set of commands, so you'll have some difficulty getting the code in the book to run. The new Java-based interface, though, is very cool - it allows you to place buttons, sliders and other tools to control the simulation and dynamically interact with the program in real time. Excellent for exploring these microworlds!!!

The book also discusses a lot about the author's interactions with children while developing StarLogo programs. I found these discussions very interesting, but they seemed to focus on how we like to perceive organized behaviors as centrally controlled (versus individually controlled). As a result, much of the book was about why a non-centralized perspective is important rather than how organization is actually formed from non-centralized communities.

Overall it is a very interesting and well-organized book. Only three stars because (1) it wasn't what I expected - perhaps the subtitle would have been more descriptive as "analyzing simple computer simulations where organized behavior results from systems with no centralized control," but I guess that would have been too wordy. And, (2) the software was not easy to find, and it was not fully compatible with the code in the book. (A version of the software compatible with the code in the book shoud be made available - even if it's since been upgraded.) And finally, (3) the book seems to be rushed toward the end. (The last chapter, for example, where the author "looks ahead" is only two pages long.)

Overall, it's a great book, and it inspires a lot of thinking, but it left me wanting a bit more...

When Papert created the LOGO computer language, it was with the idea of creating a tool simple enough for children to use that could nontheless teach them very power notions about algorithms and the power of computing. With Star LOGO, Mitchell Resnick has created a equally simple, yet unbelievably powerful tool that can be used to experiment with ideas of complexity.

"Termites..." is about how complex behaviors can arise from very simple systems, and to that end Resnick provides a number of case histories and simple programs that demonstrate how conceptually complex systems can be simulated using only a few rules. Phenomena as diverse as the movement of traffic james, pile making by termites and the migration of slime molds can all be simulated in Star LOGO with very a few assumtions. But Resnick's programs aren't just simulations; they're models of the real underlying processes that govern these complex phenomena.

Resnick hasn't just created a clever program; he's provided a wonderful tool for exploring complexity, and found a way of translating complexity into something a child can understand- while still fascinating to an adult.

This is a book describing the research of a team at MIT using a version of the educational language "Logo". Running in a simple graphical environment which supports multiple parallel operation of code in the same shared space. Write a few lines of code for an "ant", then let 1000 of them loose. The current version of this "StarLogo" system is written in Java, and available as a free download for anyone to play with.

The use of Logo is both a strength and a weakness of the approach. The strength is that the code is concise and easy to understand. The weakness is that there is only one source of the software, and anyone wishing to try it is limited to the available download. This would not be such a limitation if the book described the same version, but unfortunately things have moved on a lot since the book was written, and few (if any) of the examples will work without alteration.

As well as the development of the StarLogo system, the book covers experiments in emergent behaviour. Typical sections include how parameter and environment changes can affect the growth and development of simulated ant colonies, and a theoretical basis for those "phantom traffic jams" we have all experienced.

This book is certainly interesting if you are interested in developing parallel software simulations, or if you are interested in marginal computer languages, but don't expect the code to work without effort.

I found this book very inspirational. As an educator, I am interested in bringing elementary computer programming back to the primary and secondary school curriculum. (Programming disappeared in the early to mid 1990s.)

This book is for the teacher who wants to use computers to help kids (or grown-up kids-at-heart like myself) explore and understand the world around them. There is no software included with the book; rather, this is a book about the author's experiences in using the StarLOGO language to introduce children to parallel, distributed programming, a technique that enables modeling of the interaction of termites and ants, the flow of traffic, and the burn patterns of forest fires. Modeling the real world is an excellent way for kids to get excited about programming because the results are not as "abstract" as, say, simply drawing pictures on the screen or calculating monthly budgets. This is an "idea" book for educators looking for new ways to bring computing to our younger generations.

The book starts slowly and is very detailed at the beginning. I like that. The author describes some of the interactions he had with the kids he was teaching. Reading about the problems the kids faced and how he guided them to a solution was fascinating. Unfortunately, as the book progresses, the author seems to be in a "hurry" to finish: the programming anecdotes become less detailed and there are fewer pictures to illustrate the projects. I would have liked to read about them in more detail. That's the one shortcoming of this book.

If you're a teacher or computer-minded parent looking for ways to challenge your kids with new programming projects that model real life, this is a good book to read. It's not intended for your kids to read, nor is it a set of "canned" projects, but I think you'll find some good ideas in it.

If you ever felt like there has to be some other explanation to the way things are organized. If you ever felt like the current societal scheme makes no sense, with leaders and followers. If you ever had any of these thoughts, but never quite could figure out how to explain it... this book will. Attacking SMP and Massively Parallel Processing from a totally new approach, with no complex jiberish, jargon, or mathemathical formulas, Mitchell Resnick manages to explain all these almost flawlessly. He has done extensive research and work in this subject, and he can really make sense out of it. It opened my eyes to see things from a different perspective. It explained many things that I felt, but could not describe. It leaves you wondering "What if", as well as looking at things from a different perspective. In one word: "Extraordinary"

This book is mainly about Star Logo, an extension to the Logo language, you know, this program with a turtle strolling around, for children to get acquainted with computers and plane geometry.

Star Logo has much more features, allowing easy yet sounding powerful implementation of decentralized system, which one famous instance is cellular automaton, and some specific others in the book are ant colonies behavior, forest fires or traffic jams, with the cell of cellular automata being replaced by the notion of an "agent" (less known it seems to the public).

If you need a book for Star Logo, this is the one to get, but if you are looking for artificial life and self organization alone, don't get it.

Excellent bibliography.

Mitchel Resnick shares a lovely sense of wonder, discovery and fascination in this slim, easily read volume about agent based modelling. Using micro-worlds (termites, ants and other modelling metaphors) Resnick shows us how collective behaviours are more than a simple sum of the parts - and through his experiments using StarLogo programming he shows the nature of emergent behaviours that come through decentralised thinking.

His reading list is a great starting point for anyone fascinated by Complexity and Agent Based Modelling, and so too is his elegant list of guiding heuristics that he has learned through toying with various ants, termites, forest fires and traffic jams.

- Positive feedback (in models) often plays a vital role.
- Randomness can help create order. Random isn't always chaotic.
- A Flock is not a big bird. The behaviour of groups should not be confused with the behaviour of individuals.
- A traffic jam is not just a collection of cars. Emergent objects have an ever-changing composition.
- The hills are alive. Don't just focus on the individual objects - look also at their environment.

This volume helped our research team design approach agent-based modelling, and put us in touch with other avenues of decentralised thinking: for example Network Theory. Best of all, Resnick helped us lighten-up. This book (and its subject matter) has profound ideas, but never loses a delicious sense of awe. Recommended.

If you're illiterate about this theme, learn easy, and pick up a new point of view - better say many points. And a new way of thinking too. If you're a knower play with these models, join the established community for more answers, and apply these models to real situations. A very helpful mate for think tanks, marketing execs as me, engineers, biologists, and anybody who need new responses for old problems. A funny, serious, and very very illustrative reading in few pages!.

This book provided the motivating force to write my first, and last, review for Amazon.com.

Over the past 5 years since my first reading Mitchel Resnick's Turtles Turmites and Traffic Jams, the book has come up on numerous occasions related to several topics, two of which most basically:

1) Writing style - Resnick's clear, well-researched, simple yet profound style. His background as journalist and inventor enables TT&T to walk a new line between source material and criticism.

2) Content - Resnick's theoretical application of emergent behavior to education is robust; his practical educational tools (starlogo and later, mindstorms) are a fundamentally clear and wondrous collapsing of idea into artifact.

I will include this book with few others in my life bibliography.

Book needs some more content, it gives a good first level intro but does not develop it into more interesting/advanced things.

50% of the book is a 'sales' pitch for StarLogo.

If you have experience with writing code for simulations this book is a bit light technically.

Still has some interesting ideas in it.