ABSTRACT
The idea of cellular automata can be read as a special case of graphs or networks. Therefore, the property that agents following simple rules can collectively generate complex functions or intelligent behavior, as demonstrated in cellular automata, can also be featured by more general network topologies.1 Before we formally introduce graphs as a generalization of cellular automata and as a more powerful representation of networks, it remains a curiosity as to when the idea of using graphs as a manifestation of networks was first used in the social sciences. So, we start with the subject by tracing its origin, which will take us back to the 1950s to meet John Barnes, who simultaneously introduced the idea of social networks and suggested the use of a graph to represent a social network. We will briefly review his work first in Section 22.1.1.
