Emergence of heterogeneity and political organization in information exchange networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple agent-based model demonstrating how different societal organizations emerge from interactions, trust, and resource exchange, revealing three distinct phases of societal structure with broad applicability.

Contribution

It presents a novel model showing the emergence of societal heterogeneity and political organization from agent interactions and trust dynamics.

Findings

Three distinct societal phases identified: disconnected, homogeneous cooperative, and inhomogeneous cooperative.

Organization levels emerge generically from agent interactions, not requiring predefined structures.

Model applicable to social insects, microbial communities, and other systems.

Abstract

We present a simple model of the emergence of the division of labor and the development of a system of resource subsidy from an agent-based model of directed resource production with variable degrees of trust between the agents. The model has three distinct phases, corresponding to different forms of societal organization: disconnected (independent agents), homogeneous cooperative (collective state), and inhomogeneous cooperative (collective state with a leader). Our results indicate that such levels of organization arise generically as a collective effect from interacting agent dynamics, and may have applications in a variety of systems including social insects and microbial communities.