Physics of Competition,
Cooperation and Conflict
COST Action MP0801
Peter Richmond
COST: supporting European cooperation
in science and technology
 The 27 EU Member States
 EFTA Member States
 Iceland
 Norway
 Switzerland
 Acceding & Candidate
Countries
 Croatia
 FYR of Macedonia (FYROM)
 Turkey
 Potential Candidate Countries
 Republic of Serbia
 COST Co-operating States
Israel
COST Neighbouring
Countries
COST
countries
COST neighbouring
countries
Russia (45)
BELARUS
●
●
Special budget line in the
COST system to facilitate
collaborations
Specific exchange
activities
(Short Term Scientific
Missions, focus on Early
Stage Researchers)
Moldova (2)
Bosnia &
Herzegovina (2)
Ukraine (15)
Georgia (3)
GEORGIA
Azerbaijan (1)
SYRIA
Morocco (1)
76 participations in 36 Actions
IRAQ
TUNISIA
Tunisia (2)
LIBYA
Algeria (2)
Egypt (3)
COST Actions: global
participation
GREENLAND
ALASKA (USA)
Russia (45)
Canada (20)
Bosnia &
Herzegovina (2)
Ukraine (15)
BELARUS
KAZAKHSTAN
Moldova (2)
Georgia (3) China (6)
Azerbaijan (1)
MONGOLIA
Andorra (1)
UZBEKISTAN
GEORGIA
USA (26)
Morocco (1)
SYRIA
IRAN
LIBYA
NEPAL
Vietnam (1)
INDIA
VIETNAM
MYANMAR
MAURITANIA
LAOS
MALI
NIGER
GUATEMALA
UAE
OMAN
Cuba (1)
PAKISTAN
EGYPT
SAUDI
ARABIA
MEXICO
Rep of Korea (2)
Palestinian auth. (1)
Tunisia (2)
Algeria (2)
Egypt (3)
ALGERIA
WESTERN SAHARA
Hong Kong (1)
CHAD
SUDAN
HONDURAS
NORTH
KOREA
TAHKISTAN
AFGHANISTAN
IRAQ
TUNISIA
Japan (13)
KYRGYZSTAN
TURKMENISTAN
THAILAND
YEMEN
SENEGAL
NICARAGUA
PHILIPPINES
CAMBODIA
BURKINA
India (1)
GUINEA
NIGERIA
COSTA RICA
PANAMA
GHANA
VENEZUELA
LIBERIA
GUYANA
SURINAME
FRENCH
GUIANA
Colombia (1)
COTE
D’IVOIRE
SRI
LANKA
CENTRAL
AFRICAN REPUBLIC
CAMEROON
MALAYSIA
SOMALIA
UGANDA
KENYA
GABON CONGO
ECUADOR
Malaysia (1)
DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC OF
CONGO
TANZANIA
PAPUA
NEW GUINEA
INDONESIA
PERU
ANGOLA
ZAMBIA
BOLIVIA
MADAGASCAR
COST
countries
Neighbouring
Countries
Reciprocal
agreements
countries
Brazil (1)
PARAGUAY
ZIMBABWE
NAMIBIA
BOTSWANA
Australia (30)
URUGUAY
CHILE
Argentina (4)
South Africa (1)
New Zealand (6)
194 participations in 69 Actions (28 countries)
COST main characteristics
•
“Bottom-up”, initiative from researchers, no fixed
programmes/ priorities, equal access via OPEN CALL
•
Basic & pre-competitive research as well as activities of
public utility
•
Flexible ‘á la carte’ participation, only need to sign MoU
•
Coordination through cooperation in networks with
multidisciplinary focus
•
Networks based on national funding of researchers and
projects
•
Pan-European dimension, open to global cooperation of
mutual interest
What is funded by COST?
•
COST Actions: Nationally funded projects (min. 5 participating
countries) with joint work programme
• Support networking via
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–
–
–
–
–
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Science management meetings
Scientific workshops and seminars
Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs)
Conference Grants
Early Stage Researcher (ESR) Grants
Training Schools and Research Conferences
Dissemination
•
Average funding about 100 000 € per year per Action (~20 signatures)
•
Exploratory/Strategic Workshops: to explore future scientific or
societal needs, support policy developments or initiate new activities
World is increasingly COMPLEX
•
People, nations, economies, environments, elements of industry &
business now strongly coupled > competition, cooperation & conflict
– Information & communication systems
• Internet, world wide web, electricity networks, telecommunications, land / air
traffic & pedestrian flow depend critically network structure
– Business
•
seeks more effective decision support tools for resource allocation,
supply chain management
– Politicians, business & society at large
• seek to understand attitudes & behaviour. – voting, referenda, taxation &
wealth redistribution, consumer demand, social unrest, conflict resolution,
– Finance
• learning new routes to prediction & control of risk
– Epidemics in both human and animal communities
• demand improved methods for analysis & prediction of crises - spread of
disease, food safety, alcohol & drug addiction
– Environmental phenomena
• climate change, weather, quake warnings, tsunamis demand new approaches
to dynamical processes
– Biologists
• seek new models to analyse protein folding, genomes, organisms &
evolution with implications for life expectancy (life assurance, pensions)
“I think the 21st century will
be the century of complexity”
Stephen Hawking
“Understanding ‘Complex
Systems’ is one of the grand
challenges facing the quantitative
sciences at the turn of the 21st
century”
US National Academy of Sciences
John von Neumann
1950
• Science and technology will
shift from emphasis on motion,
force & energy to
communication, organization,
programming & control.
• Add: Complexity, structure,
form, function, information,
computation, emergence,
evolution, …
Research
 In strongly interacting world composed of many elements
or agents, interactions lead to large amplitude events


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Fluctuations non Gaussian.
Agents adapt dynamically via evolving networks;
Structures characterized by self organisation & emergence
States frequently far removed from equilibrium
 Systems characterized by multiple spatial & time scales
 Societies interact as individuals, groups, organisations, countries
 Networks not simple – scalefree!
 Stock prices (times range from seconds to hundreds of years)
 Research: holistic & multi-disciplinary
 Methodologies originate in mathematics & physics.
 Extend throughout natural sciences, engineering & computer
science into economics, social and political sciences
Evolution
• Evolution of complex systems is result of competition
and cooperation leading to concurrent groups or
communities.
• Evolution often not smooth but rather punctuated as
conflict between units leads to burst-like, sudden events.
• Phenomena are ubiquitous
– observed across biology, spreading of innovation, social turmoil,
market crash/bubbles
• Number of tools, partly developed within physics, are
helpful in this context
– self-organized criticality, evolutionary games, dynamics of
complex networks etc.
Physics of Competition, Cooperation and
Conflict
Overall objectives
• Apply modern statistical physics, mathematics &
computational physics to problems associated
with competition and conflicts such as occur in
social, political, economic, historical contexts &
other areas
• Demonstrate application of methodologies is not
only appropriate but that basic principles
underpinning social phenomena exist and can
be identified
Physics of Competition, Cooperation
and Conflict
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Rep,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy,
Lithuania Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia,
Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United
Kingdom
plus
Australia, Argentina, Japan
Five working groups
•
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WG1 Information & Knowledge Andrea Scharnhorst NL
– What is available; databases, etc?
– Empirical models > added concepts
• non Markovian, long memory, etc
WG2 Agents and Games theory Christophe Diessenberg FR
– human behaviour; cooperation; competition
• consumer choice; technological forecasting; competition
between firms > economic policy
WG3 Complex networks Stefan Thurner AT
– friendships; power transmission; WWW; bank networks &
payment flows
– heterogeneity > marketing; internet advertising
– dynamic and growing networks
WG4 Evolution and co-evolution Anxo Sanchez ES
– Cultural evolution and emergence; strategies to cope (imitation;
contrariness; evolution of hierarchies
• language- culture-politics
• markets; value versus growth
WG5 Technology & Risk Management Vittorio Rosato IT
– Robust infrastructures; transport systems; communication
networks; crowds
– Integration of sensors & risk management
Coordination & management
• MC debate and agree policy; set direction
• Sub committee - Chair, Deputy Chair + 5 WG
coordinators)
• Agree STSMs, implement MC policy during year
• Web site
• Liaise with other EC programmes via
participants
• Encourage new bids to emerging programmes
Programme 2008-9
• KO Admin meeting
– Brussels 22 Sept 2008
• WG4 Evolution
– Madrid 26-28 Jan 2009
• WG1 Competition of beliefs
– Paderborn 2-4 Feb 2009
• WG4 Anthropology and physics: prospects &
challenges
– Durham 15-17 April 2009
• Annual meeting
– Rome 27-29 May 2009
• STSMs
Target Groups/ End Users
• Social scientists and economic community
• Companies
– providing policy advice (e.g. Volterra)
– developing technology
• Young researchers across entire ERA and
beyond
• Researchers of complex systems, including
Companies: ICT development: interaction
between society and technology
Dissemination
• Who and what?
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–
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Research community (papers)
Commercial impact (WG5)
Training (STSM)
Consumer and regulatory impact (from contact with
social scientists and economists)
• How?
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–
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Publications – papers, books, proceedings;
Training schools; invited experts at meetings;
Annual meeting
Embed activity into other meetings
Web site
Benefits
• New science
– Nature of networks
• work with others; not just characterize geometry
– Emergence of cooperation & conflict
• Economic & social conflict
– Evolution
– Can we quantify human nature
• emotion; happiness, religion, fear, greed, etc