
behavior better. A psychologist, economist, or anthropologist might
have a theory about how people behave or think, and might want to
study the consequences of the theory’s assumptions, or might want to
know how tweaking certain parameters affects the outcomes of the simu-
lation; the scientist hopes to be able to generalize his or her findings to
explain something about people.
The other tradition arises mainly from computer science, applied
mathematics, and electrical engineering. This approach to modeling cul-
ture looks for better ways to solve hard mathematical problems. Parame-
ters are tweaked not to learn anything in particular about human society ...