On a small, bagel-shaped planet, tribes of natives -- collectively known as "agents" -- go about their lives. They reproduce. They eat. They travel. They squabble over limited resources, or trade them if doing so is to their mutual advantage. They exist entirely in a computer. Welcome to Sugarscape. Unlike many other research-oriented computer models, Sugarscape uses the bottom-up approach known as agent-based modeling. Rather than design models from stem to stern, Brookings researchers Joshua Epstein and Robert Axtell grow them by imposing a few simple rules on Sugarscape's agents, then studying the aggregate effects of the resulting interactions. Complex effects need not have complex causes; with their simple, bottom-up approach, Epstein and Axtell have used Sugarscape to model a variety of complex situations -- including an entire proto-history, complete with cultural evolution, population pressures, and warfare. Detailed information is available in Growing Artificial Societies, available in book form and on CD-ROM. You can view Quicktime movies of Sugarscape in action online.

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