Minority Game HubNet

Minority Game HubNet preview image

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Uri_dolphin3 Uri Wilensky (Author)

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hubnet 

Tagged by Reuven M. Lerner over 11 years ago

Model group CCL | Visible to everyone | Changeable by group members (CCL)
Model was written in NetLogo 5.0beta5 • Viewed 698 times • Downloaded 67 times • Run 0 times
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WHAT IS IT?

Minority Game is a simplified model of an economic market. In each round agents choose to join one of two sides, 0 or 1. Those on the minority side at the end of a round earn a point. This game is inspired by the "El Farol" bar problem.

Each round, the live participants must choose 0 or 1. They can view their choice history for a specified number of previous turns, and may employ a finite set of strategies to make their decision. The record available to them shows which side, 0 or 1, was in the minority in previous rounds.

This HubNet version of the model allows players to play against each other and a set of androids. The androids' intelligence (and thus the difficulty of the game) can be increased through the ANDROID-MEMORY slider.

HOW IT WORKS

Each player begins with a score of 0 and must choose a side, 0 or 1, during each round. The round ends when all the human participants have made a choice.

Each computer agent begins with a score of 0 and STRATEGIES-PER-AGENT strategies. Each of these strategies is a string of 0 and 1 choices, such as [0 1 1 1 0 0 1] that together represent the agents' possible plan of action (first choose 0, next time choose 1, next time choose 1, etc.). Initially, they choose a random one of these strategies to use. If their current strategy correctly predicted whether 0 or 1 would be the minority, they add one point to their score. Each strategy also earns virtual points according to whether it would have been correct or not. From then on, the agents will use their strategy with the highest virtual point total to predict whether they should select 0 or 1. Thus, for each android, the "fittest" strategies survive.

This strategy consists of a list of 1's and 0's that is 2^ANDROID-MEMORY long. The choice the computer agent then makes is based off of the history of past choices. This history is also a list of 1's and 0's that is ANDROID-MEMORY long, but it is encoded into a binary number. The binary number is then used as an index into the strategy list to determine the choice.

This means that if there are only computer agents and no human participants, once the number of computer agents, the number of strategies, and the length of the historical record are chosen, all parameters are fixed and the behavior of the system is of interest.

HOW TO USE IT

Quickstart Instructions:

Teacher: Follow these directions to run the HubNet activity.
Optional: Zoom In (see Tools in the Menu Bar)
Optional: Change any of the settings. If you did change settings, press the SETUP button.
Teacher: Press the LOGIN button

Everyone: Open up a HubNet Client on your machine and choose a username and connect to this activity.

Teacher: When everyone is logged in press the LOGIN button again and press the GO button when you are ready to start.

Everyone: Choose 0 or 1, when everyone has chosen the view will update to show the relative scores of all the players and androids

Teacher: To run the activity again with the same group, stop the model by pressing the GO button, if it is on. Change any of the settings that you would like.
Press the SETUP button.
Teacher: Restart the simulation by pressing the GO button again.

Teacher: To start the simulation over with a new group, have all the clients log out (or boot them using the KICK button in the Control Center) and press SETUP

Buttons:

SETUP: Resets the simulation according to the parameters set by the sliders all logged-in clients will remain logged-in but their scores will be reset to 0
LOGIN: Allows clients to log in but not to start playing the game.
GO: Starts and stops the model.

Sliders:

NUMBER-OF-PARTICIPANTS: sets the total number of participants in the game, which includes androids and human participants, as clients log in androids will automatically turn into human players. This is to ensure that there is always an odd number of participants in the world so there is always a true minority.
PLAYER-MEMORY: The length of the history the players can view to help choose sides.
ANDROID-MEMORY: Sets the length of the history which the computer agents use to predict their behavior. One gets most interesting between 3 and 12, though there is some interesting behavior at 1 and 2. Note that when using an ANDROID-MEMORY of 1, the
STRATEGIES-PER-AGENT needs to be 4 or less.
STRATEGIES-PER-AGENT: Sets the number of strategies each computer agent has in their toolbox. Five is typically a good value. However, this can be changed for investigative purposes using the slider, if desired.

Monitors:

HIGH SCORE and LOW SCORE show the maximum and minimum scores.
HISTORY: shows the most recent minority values. The number of values shown is determined by the PLAYER-MEMORY slider.

Plots:

SCORES: displays the minimum, maximum, and average scores over time
SUCCESS RATES HISTOGRAM: a histogram of the successes per attempts for players and androids.
NUMBER PICKING ZERO: plots the number of players and androids that picked zero during the last round
SUCCESS RATE: displays the minimum, maximum, and average success rate over time

Quickstart

NEXT >>> - shows the next quick start instruction
<<< PREVIOUS - shows the previous quick start instruction
RESET INSTRUCTIONS - shows the first quick start instruction

Client Interface

Buttons:

0: press this button if you wish to choose 0 for a particular round.
1: press this button if you wish to choose 1 for a particular round.

Monitors:

YOU ARE A: displays the shape and color of your turtle in the view
SCORE: displays how many times you have chosen a value that has been in the minority
SUCCESS RATE: the number of times you have been in the minority divided by the number of selections you have participated in.
LAST CHOICE: the value you chose in the last round
HISTORY: the values that were in the minority in the most recent rounds
CURRENT CHOICE: the value that you have chosen for this current round
CHOSEN-SIDES?: Tells you whether or not you have chosen this round

THINGS TO NOTICE

There are two extremes possible for each turn: the size of the minority is 1 agent or (NUMBER-OF-AGENTS - 1)/2 agents (since NUMBER-OF-AGENTS is always odd). The former would represent a "wasting of resources" while the latter represents a situation which is more "for the common good." However, each agent acts in an inherently selfish manner, as they care only if they and they alone are in the minority. Nevertheless, the latter situation is prevalent in the system without live players. Does this represent unintended cooperation between agents, or merely coordination and well developed powers of prediction?

The agents in the view move according to how successful they are relative to the mean success rate. After running for about 100 time steps (at just about any parameter setting), how do the fastest and slowest agents compare? What does this imply?

Playing against others, what strategies seem to be the most effective? What would happen if you simply chose randomly?

Look at the plot "Success Rates." As the game runs, the success rates converge. Can you explain this? At the time, the graph lines in the plot "Scores" diverge. Why is that?

THINGS TO TRY

What strategy works to maximize your own score?

Would you perform better against only computer agents than against humans?

What strategy works better to try to reach social equity?

EXTENDING THE MODEL

Maybe you could add computer agents with different strategies, or more dynamically evolutionary strategies. Could you figure out a strategy that works the best against these computer agents? You could code in multiple dynamic strategies that play against each other. Who would emerge victorious?

NETLOGO FEATURES

One feature which was instrumental to this program being feasible was the n-values primitive. When setting up strategies for each computer agent, they are binary numbers (stored in lists) of 2^ANDROID-MEMORY values. If this was done by starting with an empty list and using fput 2^ANDROID-MEMORY times, for each agent and for each strategy, during setup you would need to use fput NS(2^ANDROID-MEMORY) times. Using n-values sped this up by about 2 or 3 orders of magnitude.

The list primitives map and reduce were also used to simplify code.

RELATED MODELS

Prisoner's Dilemma
Altruism
Cooperation
El Farol
Restaurants

CREDITS AND REFERENCES

Original implementation: Daniel B. Stouffer, for the Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling.

This model was based upon studies by Dr. Damien Challet et al. Information can be found on the web at http://www.unifr.ch/econophysics/minority/

Challet, D. and Zhang, Y.-C. Emergence of Cooperation and Organization in an Evolutionary Game. Physica A 246, 407 (1997).

Zhang, Y.-C. Modeling Market Mechanism with Evolutionary Games. Europhys. News 29, 51 (1998).

HOW TO CITE

If you mention this model in a publication, we ask that you include these citations for the model itself and for the NetLogo software:

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2004 Uri Wilensky.

CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

Commercial licenses are also available. To inquire about commercial licenses, please contact Uri Wilensky at uri@northwestern.edu.

This activity and associated models and materials were created as part of the projects: PARTICIPATORY SIMULATIONS: NETWORK-BASED DESIGN FOR SYSTEMS LEARNING IN CLASSROOMS and/or INTEGRATED SIMULATION AND MODELING ENVIRONMENT. The project gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation (REPP & ROLE programs) -- grant numbers REC #9814682 and REC-0126227.

Comments and Questions

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;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Variable and Breed declarations ;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

globals
[
  ;; these may be different because the memory of players and androids may be different
  player-history    ;; the history of which number was the minority (encoded into a binary number), seen by the players
  android-history   ;; the history of which number was the minority (encoded into a binary number), seen by the androids

  minority          ;; the current number in the minority
  avg-score         ;; keeps track of all turtles' average score
  stdev-score       ;; keeps track of the standard deviation of the turtles' scores
  avg-success       ;; keeps track of all turtles' average success

  ;; lists used to create the various turtles
  shape-names        ;; shapes available for players
  colors             ;; colors available for players
  color-names        ;; names of colors available for players
  used-shape-colors  ;; shape-color combinations used

  ;; quick start instructions and variables
  quick-start  ;; current quickstart instruction displayed in the quickstart monitor
  qs-item      ;; index of the current quickstart instruction
  qs-items     ;; list of quickstart instructions

  score-list ;; for plotting
  success-list ;; for plotting
]

turtles-own
[
  score          ;; each turtle's score
  choice         ;; each turtle's current choice either 1 or 0
]

;; each client is represented by a player turtle
breed [ players player ]
players-own
[
  user-id        ;; name entered by the user in the client
  chosen-sides?  ;; true/false to tell if player has made current choice we don't move to the next round until everyone has chosen
  choices-made   ;; the number of choices each turtle has made
]

;; androids are players in the game that are controlled by the computer
breed [ androids android  ]
androids-own
[
  strategies        ;; each android's strategies (a list of lists)
  current-strategy  ;; each android's current strategy (index for the above list)
  strategies-scores ;; the accumulated virtual scores for each of the turtle's strategies
]

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Setup Procedures
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;; startup of the model

to startup
  clear-all
  setup
  hubnet-reset
end 

;; setup for the overall program, will require clients to re-login

to setup
  ;; prevent an infinite loop from occurring in assign-strategies
  if (android-memory = 1 and strategies-per-android > 4 )
  [
    user-message word "You need to increase the memory variable or\n"
                      "decrease the strategies-per-agent variable"
    stop
  ]
  setup-quick-start
  initialize-system
  initialize-androids
  ask patches with [pxcor = 0 ]
  [ set pcolor white ]
  ask players
  [
    clear-my-data
    set ycor 0
  ]
  set score-list map [ [score] of ? ] sort turtles
  update-success-list
  clear-all-plots
  reset-ticks
end 

;; initializes system variables

to initialize-system
  ;; when generating a random history to start out with
  ;; first fill the longer memory then take a subsection
  ;; of that memory and give it to the other group
  let temp-history random (2  ^ (max list player-memory android-memory))

  ifelse player-memory >= android-memory
  [
    set player-history temp-history
    set android-history (reduce-memory (full-history temp-history player-memory) android-memory)
  ]
  [
    set android-history temp-history
    set player-history (reduce-memory (full-history temp-history android-memory) player-memory)
  ]

  reset-ticks
  set avg-score 0
  set stdev-score 0

  set shape-names [ "airplane" "bug" "butterfly" "car" "fish" "monster"
                    "star" "turtle" "bird" "crown" "ufo" "sun" "train" ]
  set colors      [ white   brown   yellow   green
                    sky   violet   orange   pink  red ]
  set color-names [ "white" "brown" "yellow"  "green"
                   "blue" "purple" "orange" "pink" "red" ]
  set used-shape-colors []
end 

;; given a list reduce the length to that of the given
;; memory and return that list as a decimal number

to-report reduce-memory [history memory]
    report decimal sublist history (length history - memory) (length history - 1)
end 

;; reports the history in binary format (with padding if needed)

to-report full-history [ agent-history agent-memory ]
  let full binary agent-history
  while [length full < agent-memory]
    [ set full fput 0 full ]
  report full
end 

;; converts a decimal number to a binary number (stored in a list of 0's and 1's)

to-report binary [ decimal-num ]
  let binary-num []
  loop
    [ set binary-num fput (decimal-num mod 2) binary-num
      set decimal-num int (decimal-num / 2)
      if (decimal-num = 0)
        [ report binary-num ] ]
end 

;; converts a binary number (stored in a list of 0's and 1's) to a decimal number

to-report decimal [ binary-num ]
  report reduce [(2 * ?1) + ?2] binary-num
end 

;; remove existing turtles and create number-of-androids androids

to initialize-androids
  ask androids
    [ die ]
  set-default-shape androids "person"
  create-androids (number-of-participants - count players)
  [
    set color gray
    set xcor random-xcor
    set heading 0
    assign-strategies
    set current-strategy random strategies-per-android
    set choice item android-history (item current-strategy strategies)
    set score 0
    set strategies-scores n-values strategies-per-android [0]
  ]
  let num-picked-zero count turtles with [choice = 0]
  ifelse (num-picked-zero <= (count turtles - 1) / 2)
    [ set minority 0 ]
    [ set minority 1 ]
  set score-list map [ [score] of ? ] sort turtles
  setup-plots
end 

;; gives the androids their allotted number of unique strategies

to assign-strategies  ;; android procedure
  let temp-strategy false
  set strategies []
  repeat strategies-per-android
  [
    ;; make sure there are no duplicate strategies in the list
    set temp-strategy create-strategy
    while [ member? temp-strategy strategies ]
    [ set temp-strategy create-strategy ]
    set strategies fput temp-strategy strategies
  ]
end 

;; creates a strategy (a binary number stored in a list of
;; length 2 ^ android-memory)

to-report create-strategy
  report n-values (2 ^ android-memory) [random 2]
end 

;; reset a player to some initial values

to clear-my-data  ;; players procedure
  set xcor random-xcor
  set choice random 2
  set score 0
  set chosen-sides? false
  set choices-made 0
  send-info-to-clients
  update-client
end 

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Runtime Procedures
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

to go
  every 0.1
  [
     ;; get commands and data from the clients
     listen-clients
     ;; determine if the system should be updated (advanced in time)
     ;; that is, if every player has chosen a side for this round
     if any? turtles and not any? players with [ not chosen-sides? ]
     [
       update-system
       update-scores-and-strategies
       advance-system
       update-choices
       update-success-list
       set score-list map [ [score] of ? ] sort turtles
       update-plots
       let scores [score] of turtles
       ask turtles [ move max scores min scores ]
       ask players
       [
         set chosen-sides? false
         update-client
       ]
       tick
    ]
  ]
end 

to update-success-list
  set success-list map [ [ score / choices-made ] of ? ] sort players with [ choices-made > 0 ]
  if ticks > 0
  [ set success-list sentence success-list map [ [score / ticks] of ? ] sort androids ]
end 

;; updates system variables such as minority, avg-score, and stdev-score globals

to update-system
  let num-picked-zero count turtles with [choice = 0]
  ifelse num-picked-zero <= (count turtles - 1) / 2
  [ set minority 0 ]
  [ set minority 1 ]
  set-current-plot "Number Picking Zero"
  plot num-picked-zero
  set avg-score mean [score] of turtles
  set stdev-score standard-deviation [score] of turtles
  if ticks > 0
  [ set avg-success mean (sentence [score / ticks] of androids [score / choices-made] of players with [ choices-made > 0 ]) ]
end 

;; ask all participants to update their strategy and scores

to update-scores-and-strategies
  ask androids
    [ update-androids-scores-and-strategies ]
  ask players
    [ update-score ]
end 

;; updates android's score and their strategies' virtual scores

to update-androids-scores-and-strategies  ;; androids procedure
  ;; here we use MAP to simultaneously walk down both the list
  ;; of strategies, and the list of those strategies' scores.
  ;; ?1 is the current strategy, and ?2 is the current score.
  ;; For each strategy, we check to see if that strategy selected
  ;; the minority.  If it did, we increase its score by one,
  ;; otherwise we leave the score alone.
  set strategies-scores (map
    [ ifelse-value (item android-history ?1 = minority)
        [?2 + 1]
        [?2] ]
    strategies strategies-scores)
  let max-score max strategies-scores
  let max-strategies []
  let counter 0
  ;; this picks a strategy with the largest virtual score
  foreach strategies-scores
  [
    if ? = max-score
    [ set max-strategies lput counter max-strategies ]
    set counter counter + 1
  ]
  set current-strategy one-of max-strategies
  update-score
end 

;; if the turtle is in the minority, increase its score

to update-score  ;; turtle procedure
  if choice = minority
    [ set score score + 1 ]
end 

;; advances the system forward in time and updates the history

to advance-system
  ;; remove the oldest entry in the memories and place the new one on the end
  set player-history decimal (lput minority but-first full-history player-history player-memory)
  set android-history decimal (lput minority but-first full-history android-history android-memory)
  ;; send the updated info to the clients
  ask players
  [ hubnet-send user-id "history" full-history player-history player-memory ]
end 

;; ask all participants to update their choice

to update-choices
  update-androids-choices
  ask players [ update-client ]
end 

;; ask the androids to pick a new choice

to update-androids-choices
  ask androids
    [ set choice (item android-history (item current-strategy strategies)) ]
end 

;; move turtles according to their success (a visual aid to see their collective behavior)

to move [low-score high-score]
  if low-score != high-score
  [ set ycor (((score - low-score) / (high-score - low-score )) * (world-height - 1) ) + min-pycor ]
  ifelse choice = 0
  [
    if xcor > 0
    [ set xcor random-float (min-pxcor + 1) - 1 ]
  ]
  [
    if xcor < 0
    [ set xcor random-float (max-pxcor - 1) + 1 ]
  ]
end 

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; HubNet Procedures
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;; listen for hubnet client activity

to listen-clients
  while [hubnet-message-waiting?]
  [
    hubnet-fetch-message
    ifelse hubnet-enter-message?
     [ execute-create ]
     [ ifelse hubnet-exit-message?
       [
         ;; when players log out we don't kill off the turtles
         ;; instead we just turn them into androids since it's
         ;; important to have an odd number of players. This keeps
         ;; the total population constant
         ask players with [user-id = hubnet-message-source]
         [
           set breed androids
           set color gray
           assign-strategies
           set current-strategy random strategies-per-android
           set choice item android-history (item current-strategy strategies)
           set strategies-scores n-values strategies-per-android [0]
           set score 0
           set size 1
           display
         ]
       ]
       [
         if hubnet-message-tag = "0"
           [ choose-value 0 ]
         if hubnet-message-tag = "1"
           [ choose-value 1 ]
       ]
     ]
   ]
end 

;; create a client player upon login

to execute-create
  ;; to make sure that we always have an odd number of
  ;; participants so there is always a true minority
  ;; so just change one of the androids into a player
  ;; (you can only create an odd number of androids)
  ;; if there aren't enough androids make two and update
  ;; the slider.
  if not any? androids
  [
    create-androids 2
    [
      set heading 0
      set xcor random-xcor
    ]
    set number-of-participants number-of-participants + 2
  ]
  ask one-of androids
  [
    set breed players
    set user-id hubnet-message-source
    set size 2
    set-unique-shape-and-color
    clear-my-data
  ]
  display
end 

;; assigns a shape that is not currently in use to
;; a player turtle

to set-unique-shape-and-color  ;; player procedure
  let max-possible-codes (length colors * length shape-names)
  let code random max-possible-codes
  while [member? code used-shape-colors and count turtles < max-possible-codes]
    [ set code random max-possible-codes ]
  set used-shape-colors (lput code used-shape-colors)
  set shape item (code mod length shape-names) shape-names
  set color item (code / length shape-names) colors
end 

;; to tell the clients what they look like

to send-info-to-clients  ;; player procedure
  hubnet-send user-id "You are a:" identity
end 

;; report the string version of the turtle's identity (color + shape)

to-report identity  ;; turtle procedure
  report (word (color-string color) " " shape)
end 

;; report the string version of the turtle's color

to-report color-string [color-value]
  report item (position color-value colors) color-names
end 

;; send information to the clients

to update-client  ;; player procedure
  hubnet-send user-id "chosen-sides?" chosen-sides?
  hubnet-send user-id "last choice" choice
  hubnet-send user-id "current choice" choice
  hubnet-send user-id "history" full-history player-history player-memory
  hubnet-send user-id "score" score
  hubnet-send user-id "success rate" precision ifelse-value (choices-made > 0) [ score / choices-made ] [ 0 ] 2
end 

;; the client chooses 0 or 1

to choose-value [ value-chosen ]
  ask players with [user-id = hubnet-message-source]
  [ if not chosen-sides?
    [
      hubnet-send user-id "last choice" choice
      set choice value-chosen
      set chosen-sides? true
      set choices-made choices-made + 1
      hubnet-send user-id "current choice" choice
      hubnet-send user-id "chosen-sides?" chosen-sides?
    ]
  ]
end 

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Quick Start Procedures
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;; instructions to quickly setup the model, and clients to run this activity

to setup-quick-start
  set qs-item 0
  set qs-items
  [
    "Teacher: Follow these directions to run the HubNet activity."
    "Optional: Zoom In (see Tools in the Menu Bar)"
    "Optional: Change any of the settings...."
      "If you did change settings, press the SETUP button."
    "Teacher: Press the LOG-IN button."
    "Everyone: Open up a HubNet Client on your machine and..."
      "choose a user-name and..."
        "connect to this activity."
    "Teacher: Once everyone has started their client..."
      "press the LOG-IN button, then press GO."
    "Everyone: Watch your clock and choose 0 or 1."

    "Teacher: To rerun the activity with the same group,..."
      "stop the model by pressing the GO button, if it is on."
        "Change any of the settings that you would like."
          "Press the RE-RUN button."
    "Teacher: Restart the simulation by pressing the GO button again."

    "Teacher: To start the simulation over with a new group,..."
      "stop the model by pressing the GO button, if it is on..."
        "and follow these instructions again from the beginning."
  ]
  set quick-start (item qs-item qs-items)
end 

;; view the next item in the quickstart monitor

to view-next
  set qs-item qs-item + 1
  if qs-item >= length qs-items
  [ set qs-item length qs-items - 1 ]
  set quick-start (item qs-item qs-items)
end 

;; view the previous item in the quickstart monitor

to view-previous
  set qs-item qs-item - 1
  if qs-item < 0
  [ set qs-item 0 ]
  set quick-start (item qs-item qs-items)
end 


; Copyright 2004 Uri Wilensky.
; See Info tab for full copyright and license.

There are 7 versions of this model.

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Uri Wilensky over 11 years ago Updated to NetLogo 5.0.4 Download this version
Uri Wilensky about 12 years ago Updated version tag Download this version
Uri Wilensky about 12 years ago Updated to version from NetLogo 5.0.3 distribution Download this version
Uri Wilensky almost 13 years ago Updated to NetLogo 5.0 Download this version
Uri Wilensky over 14 years ago Updated from NetLogo 4.1 Download this version
Uri Wilensky over 14 years ago Minority Game HubNet Download this version
Uri Wilensky over 14 years ago Minority Game HubNet Download this version

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