[#42] Fantastic Simulations of Social Systems and Where to Find Them & The Butterfly Effect in the Life of an Industrial Engineer: From Snack Logistics to Simulating the Roman Empire
Modeling the interactions between entities capable of cognitive activities is a non-trivial task that requires the ability to interpret the behavior of a complex entity in a simple and possibly explainable way. Yet, it is highly relevant; all human systems are social systems, and the recent diffusion of GenAI makes the ability to accurately model social relationships even more critical. In this talk, it will be briefly discussed how to mathematically model and computationally implement different types of social systems, along with the potential to generate new information from them, as well as the challenges and limitations involved. Each of these aspects will be presented alongside an example of scientific research on the topic, highlighting a specific aspect.
Research is the marriage of serendipity and determination. Every intuition must be followed by weeks or months of hard work to bear fruit, and the likelihood of having a good intuition increases with the time spent studying. Moreover, it is impossible to predict in advance which topics will inspire our best ideas. In this sense, research is like therapy—a way of discovering oneself. Finally, it takes just a single line in a paper, an idea while taking a shower, or a sentence in a talk to spark a new idea that ignites our passion and drives us to spend the next two years exploring it. Life is highly sensitive to initial conditions, and research, if possible, even more so.
Six years ago, I was working as an industrial engineer supervising the delivery of chocolate snacks and pet food. Today, I have applied complexity science methods to almost every system that interests me, and most importantly, I still have the appetite to continue doing so. How did this happen? How do small wins, major losses, mistakes, and accumulated knowledge shape a career path, and to what extent is it chaotic? I would like to briefly share an unconventional research journey as the start of a conversation about the role of serendipity and path dependence in the career of a young scholar.
To wrap up 2024, we had the pleasure of hosting Francesco Bertolotti (Università LIUC), who introduced us to array of social systems and their analysis via simulations. He also shared his work on modeling emergency care, epidemics, and the historic Mediterranean trade network.
He gave us great insight into his way of working with a wide range of models for social systems of all sorts, which led us into a fruitful discussion and reflection on the paths and butterfly effects in (our) early academic careers.
Francesco shared valuable lessons he learned finding out what research questions he is drawn to, as well as how to find collaborators who are equally interested and curious in all sort of directions (spoiler alert: always have coffee with scientists from adjacent disciplines!).
