Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up (Complex Adaptive Systems) - Tapa dura

How do social structures and group behaviours arise from the interaction of individuals? "Growing Artificial Societies" approaches this question with computer simulation techniques. Fundamental collective behaviours such as group formation, cultural transmission, combat and trade are seen to "emerge" from the interaction of individual agents following a few simple rules. In their programme, named Sugarscape, Epstein and Axtell begin the development of a "bottom up" social science. The study is part of the 2050 Project, a joint venture of the Santa Fe Institute, the World Resources Institute and the Brookings Institution. The project is an international effort to identify conditions for a sustainable global system in the next century and to design policies to help achieve such a system.

Robert L. Axtell was formerly research associate in the Brookings Foreign Policy Studies program.