Computational Sociology

[Redistribute the Rep]

There's computational chemistry, physics, psychiatry, etc. What do you think about using mathematical algorithms to model societies on a computer? Has this been tried?

[Sinister Intents]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=au1rVNKaKMKtyATYxoHQAw&url=http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_sociology&ved=0CB0QFjAA&usg=AFQjCNG9BVpwlN5Js-xpr0WjV78-fzetyA

Wikipedia sums it up and my cellphone copies huge links

[Illegalitarian]

I think society and more importantly everything that goes into what constitutes a well functioning society would probably be far too complicated and filled with too many nuances for such a thing to be possible or desirable.

I think economic activity could likely be tracked and kept up with such a thing, but society itself, as in, all human interaction and the social relations that form out of that interaction? I don't think so

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It doesn't have to be complete in the same way that computational protein folding predictions are nowhere near completely accurate, we are far from elucidating the precise connections between primary and tertiary/quaternary structure of proteins, but computational algorithms are still useful.

[Illegalitarian]

Well, if there is an aspect of society that such an algorithm could truly be built to account for that had a useful, applicable purpose, I think that would be rather neat

[The Intransigent Faction]

There's computational chemistry, physics, psychiatry, etc. What do you think about using mathematical algorithms to model societies on a computer? Has this been tried?

Oh dear god that's a nightmare for us numerophobes.

Seriously, though, I had a discussion ages ago about whether some supercomputer could be designed to run a felicific calculus to determine the best way to run society. The one thing I remember taking from it is that this would be hugely problematic because the factors, variables, etc. would be determined by the socioeconomic/situational context in which that computer was designed, manufactured and programmed. Sure, a computer can calculate things faster, but could we design one that would give the objectively best answers to social problems independently of the prevailing opinions of the society in which it was programmed? You'll have to excuse my skeptical mind for viewing this as all but inevitably technocratic.

Whether it could be useful in a socialist society or not is I suppose a debatable hypothetical, and just that, but pushed further I would say that computers will be indispensably useful, but not to the point of a Brave New World (and as long as the Laws of Robotics are obeyed :P).

[Creative Destruction]

There's computational chemistry, physics, psychiatry, etc. What do you think about using mathematical algorithms to model societies on a computer? Has this been tried?

i mean, the most recent SimCity release kind of did this. they produced an algorithm in order to model (more like control) how the Sims act in the little world. i haven't played it, but i've seen screen caps and it's really odd.

afaik, though, other models and simulations rely on data extracted from what we currently know. so any model you make, that is based on any hard data anyway, is going to reflect the way society currently runs. like, since we don't have any data on how an actual socialist society is doing, it'd be impossible to make models in service of that goal. the nearest thing we'd have to that kind of data is compiling what happened to Allende's Cybersyn program when they actually used it.

[consuming negativity]

i know that they have the ability to simulate the spread of certain diseases within a population which obviously has to take into account their behavior (although only in the context of how often a disease is found to spread/die/etc.), but i don't think we're advanced enough or that we even understand enough of how people work in this way to make any sort of model like this

also, i don't see what purpose it would serve. what is it that we'd be looking for or observing or whatever?

[Loony Le Fist]

There's computational chemistry, physics, psychiatry, etc. What do you think about using mathematical algorithms to model societies on a computer? Has this been tried?

In some ways you could say Sim City has elements of this (though it doesn't have the flexibility to go outside of the standard neoliberal governance stuff). The thread on socialism in video games appears to be relevant.

I think we should attempt to build models like that and we have the computational capacity to do it. However, I don't want these advancements in a capitalist society because they will be used to maintain control. The competition in social media is intense for a reason. Imagine what a relatively accurate model of a society could do for a media company. As we speak, companies are infiltrating social media and hooking people.

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I don't think a lot of the responders understand my question. A sociological model would not need to be an entire society. We use computation in ,say, genetics to compare different specific genes between organisms, and perhaps use that information to try to establish correlations and hypothesize possible causal factors of the prevalence of certain genes. Computational genetics does not mean we try to build a whole genome of a species we barely have any genomic knowledge of like a T Rex. It's the same thing here in sociology, it would probably look at specific factors in a society and compare them to other societies and make predictions.

[consuming negativity]

I don't think a lot of the responders understand my question. A sociological model would not need to be an entire society. We use computation in ,say, genetics to compare different specific genes between organisms, and perhaps use that information to try to establish correlations and hypothesize possible causal factors of the prevalence of certain genes. Computational genetics does not mean we try to build a whole genome of a species we barely have any genomic knowledge of like a T Rex. It's the same thing here in sociology, it would probably look at specific factors in a society and compare them to other societies and make predictions.

have you ever seen this? http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html

it's a bit limited, not to mention that it's not really computational, but it allows you to compare specific factors in a society and make predictions. he uses it to train corporate personnel on how to interact and do business in a global economy. but you can look at the results and compare them to each other and at the very least it's sort of neat to fool around with. *shrug*