An informal and revealing introduction to the ideas of modern systems theory and self-organization as they apply to problems in the economic realm. Discovering Artificial Economics is an informal introduction to the ideas of modern systems theory and self-organization as they apply to problems in the economic realm. David Batten interleaves anecdotes and stories with technical discussions, in order to provide the general reader with a good feel for how economies function and change. Using a wealth of examples from evolutionary game theory, to stock markets, to urban and traffic planning, Batten shows how economic agents interact to produce the behavior we have come to recognize as economic life. Despite the book's easy-to-read style, Batten's message is quite profound. Strongly interactive groups of agents can produce unexpected collective behavior, emergent features which are lawful in their own right. These patterns of emergent behavior are the hallmark of a complex, self-organizing economy.