Economic Evolution and Structural Adjustment: Proceedings, Berkeley, California, USA, 1985

Since the beginning of the fifties, the ruling paradigm in the discipline of economics has been that of a competitive general equilibrium. Associated dynamic analyses have therefore been preoccupied with the stability of this equilibrium state, corresponding simply to studies of comparative statics. The need to permeate the boundaries of this paradigm in order to open up new pathways for genuine dynamic analysis is now pressing. The contributions contained in this volume spring from this very ambition. A growing circle of economists have recently been inspired by two distinct but complementary sources: (i) the pathbreaking work of Joseph Schumpeter, and (ii) recent contributions to physics, chemistry and theoretical biology. It turns out that problems which are firmly rooted in the economic discipline, such as innovation, technological change, business cycles and economic development, contain many clear parallels with phenomena from the natural sciences such as the slaving principle, adiabatic elimination and self- organization. In such dynamic worlds, adjustment processes and adaptive behaviour are modelled with the aid of the mathematical theory of nonlinear dynamical systems. The dynamics is defined for a much wider set of conditions or states than simply a set of competitive equilibria. A common objective is to study and classify ways in which the qualitative properties of each system change as the parameters describing the system vary

Simulation of the visuo-motor processes in the tracking and interception of a tennis ball in play

In sports, one might wish to test new ideas regarding player movement, tactics, or strategy without subjecting the athletes to possibly wasteful or even harmful habit formations. If a method of simulation of the athlete can be devised, experiments might reasonably be conducted to evaluate the ideas independently of actual training or trial in the field. Simulation of a complex system generally begins with a long period of analysis. During this time there may be mathematical and programming explorations and constructions to sharpen and examine different approaches. Meetings are usually held by the participants to try to define the task and explore alternatives. Ideas are amplified, possibly discarded as not feasible, or incorporated into the system package. Gradually there evolves a tighter and more acceptable formulation using logical and mathematical expressions (Preface, p. vii