The scope of complex artificial environments

This paper discusses the social significance, theoretical rationale and methodological and technological characteristics of complex artificial environments of the 21^st century. It starts by identifying a social change, the essence of which is that cities and urbanism are growing in significance, to the extent that one can speak of a second urban revolution. The paper goes on to explore urban theory and the view that cities are complex, self-organizing, artificial environments, and that the theorization of their dynamics should start from the first principles of humans' cognitive capabilities. Finally, the paper considers the methodologies of agent base, cellular automata and advanced virtual reality simulators as tools for studying cities as self-organizing complex environments.