Bounded Agents: Cognition, Coordination, and Civilization
ENG-SCI 296
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
This graduate seminar examines how bounded individuals, organizations, institutions, and artificial systems produce collective decisions and coordinated action. Students analyze and compare functional accounts from decision theory, psychology, economics, political science, organizational theory, sociology, and multi-agent systems, asking how each defines agents, boundaries, information, communication, trust, decision, and collective action. The course then asks whether these accounts can be composed into a coherent architecture spanning bounded cognition, interaction among agents, and higher-order organization. Students test this question through an original analysis of a complex coordination system.
Course Notes
Open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates by petition.
Recommended Prep
Students should be prepared for theoretical reading and cross-disciplinary discussion. Recommended preparation includes at least one upper-level course in a relevant field, calculus and probability, and programming experience at approximately the CS50 level. Python is recommended for students pursuing computational projects but is not required for all projects.
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
