Researchers from five EU universities are creating a Sims-like virtual world to study how human societies evolve. The IST sponsored New and Emergent World Models Through Individual, Evolutionary and Social Learning project is headed by A.E. Eiben of the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. NEW-TIES will have a thousand independently-behaving agents capable of moving around the world, interacting with each other, and building simple things. The agents will be rendered with the Counter Strike graphics engine. See this New Scientist article. (Spotted on Boing Boing).

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