Modelling the Emergence of Social Complexity in NetLogo

This NetLogo model (IDE version 6.0.4) is a replication of the model described in [1], a social simulation that tests the Circumscription Theory using agent-based modelling. According to this theory, the emergence of states (autonomous political units of higher social complexity) is a predictable response to environmental circumscription, which is supposed to entail warfare of social groups over available land resources [2].

For the purpose of this model, social complexity is defined as political hierarchy, implicitly emerging when social groups subjugate each other through warfare. The highest level of social complexity is achieved when one of the initial social groups subjugates all the others in the simulation.

Using this model, environmental circumscription can be simulated by decreasing the amount of land resources (habitable land), while leaving the number of competing social groups constant.

The model was used to test the following hypothesis: an increase of habitable land in the modelled artificial landscape also increases the time (measured in time-steps) required for one social group to subjugate all other groups in the simulation, and for social complexity to emerge.

A short summary of the research project, that this model is the result of, can be found in [3].