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Chapter 2
Historical Introduction

Klaus G. Troitzsch

Abstract This chapter gives an overview of early attempts at modelling social
processes in computer simulations. It discusses the early attempts, its successes
and its shortcomings and tries to identify some of them as forerunners of modern
simulation approaches.

Why Read This Chapter?
To understand the historical context of simulation in the social sciences and thus to
better comprehend the developments and achievements in the field.

2.1 Overview

The chapter is organised as follows: the next section will discuss the early attempts
at simulating social processes, mostly aiming at prediction and numerical simulation
of mathematical models of social processes. Section 3 will then be devoted to the
nonnumerical and early agent-based approaches, while Sect. 4 will give a short
conclusion followed by some hints at further reading.

2.2 The First Two Decades

Simulation in the social sciences is nearly as old as computer simulation at large.
This is partly due to the fact that some of the pioneers of computer science—such
as John von Neumann, one of the founders of game theory—were at the same
time pioneers in the formalisation of social science. And one must add Herbert
A. Simon, one of the pioneers in formalising social science, as another early
adopter of computer-assisted methods of building social theories. Thus the first

K.G. Troitzsch (retired)
Universität Koblenzt-Landau, Universitätsstraße 1, 56070 Koblenz, Germany
e-mail: klaus.g.troitzsch@bluewin.ch

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 13
B. Edmonds, R. Meyer (eds.), Simulating Social Complexity,
Understanding Complex Systems, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66948-9_2