Table of Contents

Part 1 Introduction: "artificial society" models; life and death on the sugarscape; sex, culture and conflict - the emergence of history; sugar and spice - trade comes to the sugarscape; disease agents; a society is born; artificial societies versus traditional models; artificial societies versus ALife; toward generative social science - can you grow it?. Part 2 Life and death on the sugarscape: in the beginning ... there was sugar; the agents; artificial society on the sugarscape; wealth and its distribution in the agent population; social networks of neighbours; migration; summary. Part 3 Sex, culture and conflict - the emergence of history: sexual reproduction; cultural processes; combat; the proto-history. Part 4 Sugar and spice - trade comes to the sugarscape: spice - a second commodity; trade rules; markets of bilateral traders; emergent economic networks; social computation, emergent computation; summary and conclusions. Part 5 Disease processes: models of disease transmission and immune response; immune system response; disease transmission; digital diseases on the sugarscape; disease transmission networks. Part 6 Conclusions: summary; some extensions of the current model; other artificial societies; formal analysis of artificial societies; generative social science; looking ahead...; appendices.

Promotional Information

"Computer simulations are changing the frontiers of science. Growing Artificial Societies is an outstanding example of why; it shows how sociocultural phenomena like trade, wealth, and warfare arise naturally out of the simple actions of individuals. This illuminating, entertaining book will set the standard for the practice of social science in the 21st century." -- John L. Casti, Santa Fe Institute "Epstein and Axtell present an exciting theoretical version of an integrated social science built on simple and explicit microfoundations." -- Sidney G. Winter, Wharton School of Business Growing Artificial Societies is a milestone in social science research. It vividly demonstrates the potential of agent-based computer simulation to break disciplinary boundaries. It does this by analyzing, in a unified framework, the dynamic interactions of such diverse activities as trade, combat, mating, culture, and disease. It is an impressive achievement. -- Robert Axelrod, University of Michigan

About the Author

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

Reviews

"Growing Artificial Societies is a milestone in social science research.It vividly demonstrates the potential of agent-based computer simulation tobreak disciplinary boundaries. It does this by analyzing in a unifiedframework the dynamic interactions of such diverse activities as trade,combat, mating, culture, and disease. It is an impressive achievement." Robert Axelrod, University of Michigan