Sugarscape is a model for

artificially intelligent Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

agent-based

social simulation Social simulation is a research field that applies computational methods to study issues in the social sciences. The issues explored include problems in computational law, psychology, organizational behavior, sociology, political science, econom ...

following some or all rules presented by Joshua M. Epstein & Robert Axtell in their book ''Growing Artificial Societies''.

Origin

Fundaments of Sugarscape models can be traced back to the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

where economist

Thomas Schelling Thomas Crombie Schelling (April 14, 1921 – December 13, 2016) was an American economist and professor of foreign policy, national security, nuclear strategy, and arms control at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Coll ...

presented his paper titled '' Models of Segregation''. Written in 1969, Schelling and the rest of the

social environment The social environment, social context, sociocultural context or milieu refers to the immediate physical and social setting in which people live or in which something happens or develops. It includes the culture that the individual was educated ...

modelling fraternity had their options limited by a lack of adequate computing power and an applicable programming mechanism to fully develop the potential of their model. John Conway's agent-based simulation " Game of Life" was enhanced and applied to Schelling's original idea by Joshua M. Epstein and Robert Axtell in their book ''Growing Artificial Societies''. To demonstrate their findings on the field of agent-based simulation, a model was created and distributed with their book on CD-ROM. The concept of this model has come to be known as "the Sugarscape model". Since then, the name "Sugarscape" has been used for agent-based models using rules similar to those defined by Epstein & Axtell.

Principles

All Sugarscape models include the agents (inhabitants), the environment (a two-dimensional grid) and the rules governing the interaction of the agents with each other and the environment. The original model presented by J. Epstein & R. Axtell (considered as the first large scale agent model) is based on a 51x51 cell grid, where every cell can contain different amounts of sugar (or spice). In every step agents look around, find the closest cell filled with sugar, move and metabolize. They can leave pollution, die, reproduce, inherit sources, transfer information, trade or borrow sugar, generate immunity or transmit diseases - depending on the specific scenario and variables defined at the set-up of the model. Sugar in simulation could be seen as a metaphor for resources in an artificial world through which the examiner can study the effects of social dynamics such as evolution, marital status and inheritance on populations. Exact simulation of the original rules provided by J. Epstein & R. Axtell in their book can be problematic and it is not always possible to recreate the same results as those presented in ''Growing Artificial Societies''.

Model implementations

The Sugarscape model has had several implementations, some of which are available as

free and open source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term encompassing free ...

software.

Ascape

An original implementation was developed in Ascape,

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

software suitable for

agent-based social simulation Agent-based social simulation (or ABSS) consists of social simulations that are based on agent-based modeling, and implemented using artificial agent technologies. Agent-based social simulation is a scientific discipline concerned with simulation ...

. The Sugarscape model remains part of the built-in library of models distributed with Ascape.

NetLogo

NetLogo NetLogo is a programming language and integrated development environment An integrated development environment (IDE) is a Application software, software application that provides comprehensive facilities for software development. An IDE no ...

has been used to build Sugarscape models. Three Sugarscape scenarios are included in the NetLogo Models Library: "Immediate Growback", "Constant Growback" and "Wealth Distribution". Besides these three scenarios lies Iain Weaver's Sugarscape NetLogo model, which is part of the User Community Models Library. "It builds on Owen Densmore's NetLogo community model to encompass all rules discussed in ''Growing Artificial Societies'' with the exception of the combat rule (although trivial to include, it adds little value to the model)." The model is equipped with rich documentation including instructions for successful replication of the original Sugarscape rules.

SugarScape on steroids

Due to the emergent nature of

agent-based model An agent-based model (ABM) is a computational model for simulating the actions and interactions of autonomous agents (both individual or collective entities such as organizations or groups) in order to understand the behavior of a system and ...

s (ABMs), it is critical that the population sizes in the simulations match the population sizes of the dynamic systems being modelled. However, the performance of contemporary agent simulation frameworks has been inadequate to handle such large population sizes and

parallel computing Parallel computing is a type of computing, computation in which many calculations or Process (computing), processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. ...

frameworks designed to run on

computing cluster A computer cluster is a set of computers that work together so that they can be viewed as a single system. Unlike grid computers, computer clusters have each node set to perform the same task, controlled and scheduled by software. The newes ...

s has been limited by available bandwidth. As computing power increases with

Moore's law Moore's law is the observation that the Transistor count, number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and Forecasting, projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of ...

, the size and complexity of simulation frameworks can be expected to increase. The team of R. M. D’Souza, M. Lysenko and K Rahmani from

Michigan Technological University Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Uppe ...

used a Sugarscape model to demonstrate the power of

Graphics processing unit A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed for digital image processing and to accelerate computer graphics, being present either as a discrete video card or embedded on motherboards, mobile phones, personal ...

s (GPU) in ABM simulations with over 50 updates per second with agent populations exceeding 2 million.

Mathematica

Another implementation can be found written in

Mathematica Wolfram (previously known as Mathematica and Wolfram Mathematica) is a software system with built-in libraries for several areas of technical computing that allows machine learning, statistics, symbolic computation, data manipulation, network ...

MASON

GMU's MASON project, available under the

Academic Free License The Academic Free License (AFL) is a permissive free software license written in 2002 by Lawrence E. Rosen, a former general counsel of the Open Source Initiative (OSI). The license grants similar rights to the BSD, MIT, UoI/NCSA and Apache l ...

, also includes an implementation of Sugarscape.