Dear all,

I am very happy to announce the following talk by Jeremy Seligman at NII. Everyone is welcome.

Best Regards, Ken Satoh email [email protected] http://research.nii.ac.jp/~ksatoh ----------------------------------------------------- Date and Time: 15:00-16:00, 5 September (Wednesday) Place: Room 2009 (20F), National Institute of Informatics, https://www.nii.ac.jp/en/about/access/

Speaker: Jeremy Seligman (University of Auckland / Tsinghua Univeristy) http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/people/jsel014 Title: Adventures in Social Epistemic Logic Abstract: What can sociology and social psychology give to logic, especially epistemic logic? We look first at models of diffusion, which has been used to explain a wide variety of social phenomena from contagion to the spread of culture and innovation. As an alternative to the classic models based on linear algebra, we use cellular automata specified using modal logic with dynamic operators. We extend this approach to models of influence.

From these examples of non-relational deterministic "low-level" rational

behaviour, we consider several extensions. First, a modest addition to model some higher-order reasoning in social situations. Second, a treatment of non-determinism using free parameters and constraints specified also in modal logic. Third, we consider changes to the social relations using a PDL-like extension to our modal specification language. Finally, we look at "colouring games" as a paradigm of sociological explanation, and briefly introduce the approach of Boolean network games, that uses logically specified automaton-based models, together with concepts from game theory.