Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams: Explorations in Massively Parallel Microworlds

by Mitchel Resnick

"Mitchel Resnick's book is one of the very few in the field of computing with an interdisciplinary discourse that can reach beyond the technical community to philosophers, psychologists, and historians and sociologists of science."
-- Sherry Turkle, Professor, Program in Science, Technology, and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Resnick's work provides a rare glimpse of what I am sure will become a new paradigm for research in education."

How does a bird flock keep its movements so graceful and synchronized? Most people assume that the bird in front leads and the others follow. In fact, bird flocks don't have leaders: they are organized without an organizer, coordinated without a coordinator. And a surprising number of other systems, from termite colonies to traffic jams to economic systems, work the same decentralized way. Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams describes innovative new computational tools that can help people (even young children) explore the workings of such systems—and help them move beyond the centralized mindset.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Programming, Education, Computer Science, Physics, Computers

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Mitchel Resnick, Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab, develops new technologies and activities to engage people (especially children) in creative learning experiences. His Lifelong Kindergarten research group develops the Scratch programming software and online community, the world’s largest coding platform for kids. His group also collaborates with the LEGO company on the development of new educational ideas and products, including the LEGO Mindstorms robotics kits. Resnick co-founded the Computer Clubhouse project, an international network of 100 after-school learning centers, where youth from low-income communities learn to express themselves creatively with new technologies. Resnick earned an undergraduate degree in physics from Princeton, and a Masters and PhD degrees in computer science from MIT. He was awarded the McGraw Prize in Education in 2011 and the AACE EdMedia Pioneer Award in 2013.

Reviews

[The Cambrian Cloud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a nice book though I am partial to the first half in which Resnick does an excellent job of describing how large numbers of simple agents, following simple rules are capable of self organizing so as to produce enormously complex interactions in nature. Classic examples of self organizing behavior are ants, termites, flocks of geese etc...The second half of the book is more specifically geared toward the development of experimental software capable of producing complex behaviors found in nature. Resnick follows in the footsteps of John Holland from the University of Michigan / Santa Fe Institute and other pioneers in the field of genetic algorithms.

I would recommend the book to anyone with a strong interest in complex adaptive systems. I would add though, it probably functions best as a supplemental source for material.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very nice and easy to read book which introduce us to the massive parallel computational systems. The author studies several problems from the "parallel point of view" using a variant of the Logo programming language.

Very didactic and enjoyable!

[Kars · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read, unassumingly written. I really like the things Resnick has to say about the "centralized mindset" and how to combat it through education that employs playful computer simulations.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams, Resnick shares his experience and thoughts on engaging students in the development of their own understanding about systems, especially with the concepts of centralization, decentralization, and self-organization. Resnick developed a particular computer language (StarLogo) for this engagement and much of the book gives the basic commands and explanation of these programs which he or the students developed. Despite this emphasis, the book is much more than a primer on StarLogo. Resnick explores the ways different students engaged the programming tasks, their thought process (in their own words), and the insights they gained. His descriptions and reflections are worth pondering for any teacher, at any level of education. Additionally, the programs he presents are models of systems and their behaviors which stimulates insights into the nature of models as well as the phenomena being modeled with further applications. I found the book especially good for developing a better understanding of self-organizing systems and decentralization and critical thinking about these processes.

The book is divided into 5 sections which set up the project and programming platform, the student explorations, and an evaluation of these. There is an appendix on the students who participated, an appendix overview of StarLogo (the computer language), and a reference list.

Highly recommended for all teachers and those interested in complexity, self-organizing systems.

[Arturo Martín · Rating 3 out of 5]

Español: He leído este libro debido a que he estado investigando sobre algoritmos genéticos (enfocados a resolver problemas de optimización) y quería leer sobre su uso original para simular la evolución biológica. El libro no trata realmente de esto, sino de lo que se conoce hoy en día como Modelado Basado en Agentes. De hecho, quien conozca el lenguaje Netlogo y haya completado el curso en línea de esa temática que ofrece el Santa Fe Institute conocerá la mayoría de los temas que se tratan en el libro. El autor hace mucho énfasis en la idea de descentralización, siendo incluso dogmático en algunls (aunque en el capítulo 5 presenta una opinión más moderada), y parece víctima de un panteísmo que a veces acompaña a quienes se dedican a la Complejidad.

English: I read this book because I have been researching genetic algorithms (focused on solving optimization problems) and wanted to read about their original use in simulating biological evolution. The book is not really about this, but rather about what is known today as Agent-Based Modeling. In fact, anyone familiar with the Netlogo language and who has completed the online course on this subject offered by the Santa Fe Institute will be familiar with most of the topics covered in the book. The author places great emphasis on the idea of decentralization, even being dogmatic in some cases (although in chapter 5 he presents a more moderate opinion), and seems to be a victim of the pantheism that sometimes accompanies those who study complexity.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that explains clearly and simply emergent theory. It offers the idea that complex reactions can be explained with simple actions. It used StarLogo examples as a way of showing it and as a way of developing thinking around this stuff.

Traffic jams, population growth, city growth ants and termites are all explored as examples. I am glad to have revisited this book. The central idea has infected my thinking since I read it. It seems like a corollary of Occam's Razor, if the same thing can be explained as emergent property then maybe there isn't some third thing going on. It also explains why so many people find it hard to believe in the simple. Conspiracy theory can be partially explained this way.

Anyway, it has come back into my life at a good time. It helps with understanding or resist the centralized ideas of what is going on during this pandemic.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The square and the tower. But with more reified abstraction with programming, and almost no history and politics. The author's fascination shines through. The narrative and purpose was unique: looking at decentralisation from the vantage point of education, epistemology and epistemological dissemination, and not as an academic concept alone. It was a unique advocacy of the temperament that inevitably accompanies understanding system sciences, emergences and decentralisation. It is but a little dated. AI related pericopes were periscopic. Such mentions in this age of LLM makes one impatient with the content, however meaningful and informative it is, all for the mind's nagging questions prospecting a more contemporary rendition of the same book.

[Kimee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is neat. I bought this book because the CEO of the company I work at did his graduate work with Resnick, and this was a very fun ride about trying to think from a less central mindset using concrete examples. Now I just want to play with StarLogo! Also just a great example of good, approachable technical writing. Will keep around.

[Charlie Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though StarLogo, the program in which much of the book takes place, is dated, the ideas are still very relevant and interesting to consider, perhaps even more so in the light of social media. The main point of the book revolves around the idea of a decentralization as a method of programming and understand behavior. How do lots of small autonomous creatures interact without a leader? I'd like to think that facebook and twitter users are more complex creatures than logo turtles, but for some reason I doubt it.

[Adrian Herbez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book would be an exploration of complex systems, but that's not exactly what it was. Instead, it was more of an exploration of how to teach complex systems using programming tools.

If you've read much about complexity, many of the ideas here will be familiar, but it may have a good deal of value for educators looking for ideas on how to encourage students to think about decentralized systems.

[Franck Chauvel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book was published in 1997, I found it very relevant and easy to read. It describes how building small parallel microworlds may improve our understanding of complex systems. Examples are illustrated with small StarLogo programs, a language that was superseded by NetLogo if I'm correct. The core value remains for me in the discussions and examples, not in the code.

[Ajay · Rating 3 out of 5]

More about computing than economics really, but at it's core the book is about the study of decentralised systems. It's a solid exploration, but possibly dated given that it was published in the '90's.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting albeit dated, but a good intro to the field for someone with no background.