Search results for "Artificial Society"
showing 3 items of 13 documents
Computational Demography of Religion: A Proposal
2021
This paper proposes a new approach to the demography of religion and non-religion that builds on and expands agent-based modeling and social simulation techniques developed in prior work by the research teams led by the authors. Traditional demographic approaches to religion and non-religion understandably focus attention on self-reports of religious identity or affiliation, where longitudinal data is most readily available, and they employ a cohort-component methodology to make projections. We argue that demographic projections of religion and non-religion could be enhanced by using multi-agent artificial intelligence models of societies. After artificial societies with suitably cognitivel…
Artificial Social Ethics: Simulating Culture, Conflict, and Cooperation
2020
In recent years advances in computational modeling and social simulation technologies have enabled scientists to identify some of the conditions under which – and the mechanisms by which – conflict and cooperation within and across human cultures are likely to emerge. There are significant ethical concerns surrounding the increased capacity and growing use of such computer tools to guide public policy discussions. The purpose of this paper is to propose and promote an "artificial social ethics" approach to addressing these concerns and illustrate its application in relation to three agent-based models implemented within the Artificial Society Analytics Platform. We conclude with a brief dis…
The Role Of Elites In The Diffusion Of Social Norms Of Humanitarianism
2019
Certain social norms evolve without punishment as conventions that do not adversely affect society. In this paper, we depart from the notion that humanitarianism is one such social norm, where peer pressure may be the only type of punishment that encourages individuals to conform. Using an agent-based modeling approach, we examine the role that networked elites have in diffusing a non-punishment-enforced norm through an artificial society. The model considers norm advocates who promote a norm of humanitarianism, elites who have wide networks to spread the new norm, and general individuals who evaluate the norm pushed from elites and adopted by their peers. The study finds that, regardless o…