Computer Science of Social Systems

Abstract: This Micro-WG is the fourth recent meeting investigating the supposition that advance in our understanding of complex systems and computer science theory should be brought to bear on our investigations into human history. For simplicity, we construe a society as a set of interacting occupations and technologies. Similarly, a biotic environment is a set of interacting distinct ecological and climatic processes. This provides novel ways to characterize social complexity, which we hope will cast new light on the archaeological and historical records. Our framework also provides a natural way to formalize both the energetic (thermodynamic) costs required by a society as it runs, and the ways it can extract thermodynamic resources from the environment in order to pay for those costs --- and perhaps to grow with any left-over resources.