Professor James Doran

Biography

My current research interests lie primarily in agent-based modelling on a computer, especially Agent-Based Modelling of Guerrilla Wars. I believe that such modelling can usefully enhance our understanding of the dynamics of a typical guerrilla war. To this end I am experimenting with a computer model of a guerrilla war, the Iruba model, based loosely on the Irish War of Independence and the Castro led revolution in Cuba. The limitations of such models soon become clear and raise important methodological questions, and also some technical questions of particular interest to computer scientists. In addition, I am exploring a somewhat new approach to the Design of Intelligent Agents. In spite of decades of research in AI, the core processes of intelligence remain elusive. In the context of agent design, I conjecture that what we call intelligence emerges from a few relatively simple computational processes specified at roughly the neural network level, but not necessarily in any close correspondence with actual brain processes. Accordingly I have been experimenting with sets of computational processes to establish their emergent properties and limitations, and also attempting to derive effective agent designs directly from the properties of the agent's environment. In the last decade or so I have also published papers concerning the following topics - the numbers refer to publications in the list of my publications: agent-based modelling of early human societies agent-based modelling for sustainable resource management methodological aspects of agent-based modelling and the detection of agents in a model of the space-time continuum the collective properties of agents with partial foreknowledge I read mathematics at Hertford College, Oxford, and then in the Sixties became a specialist in artificial intelligence at the University of Edinburgh under the guidance of Donald Michie. After four years at the UK Atlas Computer Laboratory, in 1973 I moved to the University of Essex in the Department of Computer Science where I am now an Emeritus Professor. I formally retired in 2001. Throughout my career I have also applied statistical and computer methods in archaeology and anthropology. From this work arose my present interest in agent-based modelling and social simulation. My publications and projects reflect this mix of research interests.