El Farol Bar Model
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| - | The '''El Farol bar model''' | + | The '''El Farol bar model''' describes chaotic behavior of bar attendees, where the number of people attending the bar fluctuates around a certain threshold. It was created in 1994 by W. Brian Arthur, an economics who helped start the Santa Fe Institute. In its more general form it is known as the minority game, where people try to be in the minority for a certain choice, because in the end minority side wins. The El Farol bar model is named after a bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Once a week the bar had live Irish music that was enjoyable only if the place wasn't too crowded. The problem was to decide when to go and when to stay home. |
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| + | The problem is modelled as follows: There is a particular, finite population of people. Every Thursday night, all of these people want to go to the El Farol Bar. However, the El Farol is quite small, and it's no fun to go there if it's too crowded. So much so, in fact, that the following '''rules''' are in place: | ||
* If '''less than 60%''' of the population go to the bar, they'll all have a better time than if they stayed at home. | * If '''less than 60%''' of the population go to the bar, they'll all have a better time than if they stayed at home. | ||
