The ability to analyze systems of “adaptive” agents systematically is an area of great promise for social scientists, but it does face a potentially serious scientific challenge: can we create a coherent science of adaptive agents? One advantage of optimization-based models is that there is typically only one way for an agent to be optimal while, as we all have experienced at one time or another, there appears to be an infinity of ways for an agent to be “dumb.”
model classes on actual human behavior, using trained models that are essentially limited, hampered in their ability to reach optimal outcomes, in proportion to human actors...
