Do humans behave much like atoms? Sociophysics, which uses tools and conceptsfrom the physics of disordered matter to describe some aspects of social and political behavior, answers in the affirmative. But advocating the use of models from the physical sciences to understand human behavior could be perceived as tantamount to dismissing the existence of human free will and also enablingthose seeking manipulative skills. This thought-provoking book argues it is just the contrary. Indeed, future developments and evaluation will either show sociophysics to be inadequate, thus supporting the hypothesis that people can primarily be considered to be free agents, or valid, thus opening the path to a radically different vision of society and personal responsibility. This bookattempts to explain why and how humans behave much like atoms, at least in some aspects of their collective lives, and then proposes how this knowledge canserve as a unique key to a dramatic leap forwards in achieving more social freedom in the real world. At heart, sociophysics and this book are about bettercomprehending the richness and potential of our social interaction, and so distancing ourselves from inanimate atoms. The first book ever that explains the field of sociophysics, written by its founding father. Demonstrates the value of applying methods in physics for the modeling of social and political phenomena. Presents convincing examples with correct predictions of collective human behavior. INDICE: Preface. The readers guide to a unique book of its kind. References. Part 1: Sociophysics: setting the frame. Chapter 1: What is sociophysics about?. Chapter 2: The question: do humans behave like atoms?. Chapter 3: Sociophysics: the origins. Chapter 4: Sociophysics: weaknesses, achievements and challenges. Part II: Discovering the wonderful (and maybe scary) world of Sociophysics. Chapter 5: Sociophysics: an overview of emblematic founding models. Chapter 6: Universal features of group decision making. Chapter 7: The dictatorship paradox of democratic bottom-up voting. Chapter 8: The dynamics of spontaneous coalition-fragmentation versus global coalitions. Chapter 9: Terrorism andthe percolation of passive supporters. Chapter 10: The modeling of opinion dynamics. Chapter 11: By way of caution. Part III: Democratic voting in bottom-up hierarchical structures: from advantages and setbacks to dictatorship paradoxes. Chapter 12: Highlights of the Part. Chapter 13: Basic mechanisms for the perfect democratic structure. Chapter 14: Going to applications. Chapter 15: Touching on a fundamental aspect of nature, both physical and human. Chapter 16: Dictatorship paradoxes of Democratic voting in hierarchical structures. PartIV: The risky business of alliances in bottom-up democratic voting with three-choice competition. Chapter 17: Bottom-up democratic voting in a three-choicecompetition. Chapter 18: So sorry, that's the end of the tour!. Chapter 19: Ithank you.
- ISBN: 978-1-4614-2031-6
- Editorial: Springer New York
- Encuadernacion: Cartoné
- Páginas: 536
- Fecha Publicación: 28/02/2012
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés