The Emergence of Symbiotic Groups Resulting From
Skill-Differentiation and Tags
By: Bruce Edmonds
Date: 31th October 2004
CPM Report No.: CPM-04-140
Presented at the AISB 2005 Symposium on Emerging Artificial Societies.
Published as: Edmonds, B. (2006) The Emergence of Symbiotic Groups Resulting From Skill-Differentiation and Tags. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 9(1). (http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/9/1/10.html).
The paper
presents a evolutionary simulation where the presence of ‘tags’ and an
inbuilt specialisa-tion in terms of skills result in the development of
‘symbiotic’ sharing within groups of individuals with similar
tags. It is shown that the greater the number of possible sharing
occasions there are the higher the population that is able to be
sustained using the same level of resources. The ‘life-cycle’ of
a particular cluster of tag-groups is illustrated showing: the
establishment of sharing; a focusing-in of the cluster; the
exploitation of the group by a particular skill-group and the waning of
the group. This simulation differs from other tag-based models in
that is does not rely on either the forced donation of resources to
individuals with the same tag and where the tolerance mechanism plays a
significant part. These ‘symbiotic’ groups could provide the
structure necessary for the true emergence of artificial societies,
supporting the division of labour found in human societies.
Presentation included: