Tag Based Co-operation in Artificial Societies
Ph.D. Thesis - David Hales 2001
Abstract
In human society behaviour is often shaped within and directed towards groups.
What role can groups play in the evolution and maintenance of
co-operation between simple boundedly rational agents? Such questions can now
be addressed using artificial societies of agents on computers.
Three computational simulations of artificial societies have been constructed and
experimentation performed. In the first society (the SwapShop) a cellular automata model
demonstrates, for the first time, that
simple cultural learning rules produce high levels of altruism. This is compared with more
traditional genetic modes of evolution.
In the second society (the StereoLab) a more complex cultural learning
scenario, based on culturally learned stereotypes, is explored.
Key parameters of the society were searched in order to locate those regions giving
high co-operation between agents.
Several regions were located. Finally a third society was constructed (TagWorld II) which
abstracted the process found in one of the more interesting regions located in the StereoLab.
In the TagWorld II society, pairs of agents play the one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma. Agents bias
their game interactions towards those with identical tags (observable markers). This
turns out to be sufficient
to sustain high levels of co-operation. The underlying process involves the
formation and dissolution of groups of agents sharing identical tags.
It is concluded that the cultural group formation process demonstrated
can play a major role in the emergence
and maintenance of co-operation
and altruism when agents are boundedly rational cultural learners.
Such processes have potential applications in multi-agent systems engineering and
may aid understanding of human societies.
Entire Thesis:
Zipped Postscript (4.9MB) OR Zipped PDF (2.0MB)
Parts:
Abstract, Contents and Acknowledgements: Postscript (1.1MB) OR PDF (0.2MB)
Chapter 1 - Introduction: Postscript (1.2MB) OR PDF (0.2MB)
Chapter 2 - Altruism and Co-operation: Postscript (2.7MB) OR PDF (0.6MB)
Chapter 3 - Artificial Society Methodology: Postscript (1.0MB) OR PDF (0.2MB)
Chapter 4 - Experimental Overview and Progression: Postscript (0.6MB) OR PDF (0.1MB)
Chapter 5 - Group Formation and Agent Altruism: Postscript (2.2MB) OR PDF (0.5MB)
Chapter 6 - Social Cues and Trust: Postscript (2.5MB) OR PDF (0.5MB)
Chapter 7 - Parameter Space Exploration: Postscript (1.8MB) OR PDF (0.3MB)
Chapter 8 - Co-operation in the StereoLab: Postscript (4.9MB) OR PDF (1.2MB)
Chapter 9 - Groups in Tag Space: Postscript (1.7MB) OR PDF (0.4MB)
>>> Please read error note before reading this chapter!
Chapter 10 - Conclusions and Future Work: Postscript (1.2MB) OR Postscript (0.3MB)
Bibliography: Postscript (2.3MB) OR PDF (0.7MB)
Glossary: Postscript (1.1MB) OR PDF (0.3MB)
Appendix A - Implementation and Technical Issues: Postscript (1.7MB) OR PDF (0.5MB)
PDF conversions kindly supplied by Bruce Edmunds
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Last Updated: March 2001