92
X-Machines for Agent-Based Modeling: FLAME Perspectives
heritance of wealth or sugar was programmed. This allowed various society classes to be formed.
Combat. Sometimes agents were allowed to combat each other for commodities.
Life and death. Agents were given life spans, modeling a living society.
Trading between sugar and spice. Wealth was denoted by the amount of
sugar. Spice was an additional commodity, introduced by Epstein et al.
[57]. The agents were told they need specific proportions of both sugar
and spice to survive. During the simulation, if an agent had too much
sugar and bumped into another agent, who had extra spice, the two
agents would agree to trade. Through this model, supply and demand
curves were generated, similar to Figure 6.6, useful for economic models.
Terrains. Some models had mountains, and agents concentrated in areas of
high sugar that were easily accessible. Figure 5.4 shows agent movement
across landscape in a simple Sugarscape model. The agents concentrated
into two areas, where there were sugar piles in the beginning.
5.1 Sugarscape Model
The Sugarscape model proved to be an excellent tool to analyze economic
models in an artificial society. Horres and Gore [92] discussed similarities between economics in real and artificial societies, using the spice trading facet.
The authors presented the supply-demand curve with the equilibrium changing with different experimental settings. Gumerman et al. [79] used the model
to produce results, that were later mapped to show how prehistoric American
society settlements were organized in history. Kl¨ ock [109] presented a detailed
report on Sugarscape model with territory formation. His work investigated
behavior of trade, combat and wealth distribution when factors like migration
and taxes were introduced.
Sugarscape’s key advantage was that it could be tweaked with variables
and methods to allow new behaviors. By introducing authorities or leaders,
governments could be seen emerging. Peterson [148] supported the use of the
model stating that “by providing insights into population growth, resource use,
migration, economic development, conflict, and other global social processes,
games played on the Sugarscape grid, may help shape policies needed to direct
future course of society.”
The Sugarscape model was also used in economics. Al et al. [3] used the
model to study effects of taxing wealth and redistribution when they measured
X-Machines for Agent-Based Modeling: FLAME Perspectives
heritance of wealth or sugar was programmed. This allowed various society classes to be formed.
Combat. Sometimes agents were allowed to combat each other for commodities.
Life and death. Agents were given life spans, modeling a living society.
Trading between sugar and spice. Wealth was denoted by the amount of
sugar. Spice was an additional commodity, introduced by Epstein et al.
[57]. The agents were told they need specific proportions of both sugar
and spice to survive. During the simulation, if an agent had too much
sugar and bumped into another agent, who had extra spice, the two
agents would agree to trade. Through this model, supply and demand
curves were generated, similar to Figure 6.6, useful for economic models.
Terrains. Some models had mountains, and agents concentrated in areas of
high sugar that were easily accessible. Figure 5.4 shows agent movement
across landscape in a simple Sugarscape model. The agents concentrated
into two areas, where there were sugar piles in the beginning.
5.1 Sugarscape Model
The Sugarscape model proved to be an excellent tool to analyze economic
models in an artificial society. Horres and Gore [92] discussed similarities between economics in real and artificial societies, using the spice trading facet.
The authors presented the supply-demand curve with the equilibrium changing with different experimental settings. Gumerman et al. [79] used the model
to produce results, that were later mapped to show how prehistoric American
society settlements were organized in history. Kl¨ ock [109] presented a detailed
report on Sugarscape model with territory formation. His work investigated
behavior of trade, combat and wealth distribution when factors like migration
and taxes were introduced.
Sugarscape’s key advantage was that it could be tweaked with variables
and methods to allow new behaviors. By introducing authorities or leaders,
governments could be seen emerging. Peterson [148] supported the use of the
model stating that “by providing insights into population growth, resource use,
migration, economic development, conflict, and other global social processes,
games played on the Sugarscape grid, may help shape policies needed to direct
future course of society.”
The Sugarscape model was also used in economics. Al et al. [3] used the
model to study effects of taxing wealth and redistribution when they measured