Can justice be fair when it is blind? How social network structures can promote or prevent the evolution of despotism
Conference Proceeding
Perret, C., Powers, S. T., Pitt, J., & Hart, E. (2018)
Can justice be fair when it is blind? How social network structures can promote or prevent the evolution of despotism. In T. Ikegami, N. Virgo, O. Witkowski, M. Oka, R. Suzuki, & H. Iizuka (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2018 Conference on Artificial Lifehttps://doi.org/10.1162/isal_a_00058
Hierarchy is an efficient way for a group to organize, but often goes along with inequality that benefits leaders. To control despotic behaviour, followers can assess leaders'...
Simulating the actions of commuters using a multi-agent system
Journal Article
Urquhart, N., Powers, S., Wall, Z., Fonzone, A., Ge, J., & Polhill, G. (2019)
Simulating the actions of commuters using a multi-agent system. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 22(2), https://doi.org/10.18564/jasss.4007
The activity of commuting to and from a place of work affects not only those travelling but also wider society through their contribution to congestion and pollution. It is de...
Finding Fair Negotiation Algorithms to Reduce Peak Electricity Consumption in Micro Grids
Conference Proceeding
Powers, S. T., Meanwell, O., & Cai, Z. (2019)
Finding Fair Negotiation Algorithms to Reduce Peak Electricity Consumption in Micro Grids. In PAAMS 2019: Advances in Practical Applications of Survivable Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: The PAAMS Collection, 269-272. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24209-1_28
Reducing peak electricity consumption is important to maximise use of renewable energy sources, and reduce the total amount of capacity required on a grid. Most approaches use...
Emergence of hierarchy from the evolution of individual influence in an agent-based model
Conference Proceeding
Perret, C., Powers, S. T., & Hart, E. (2017)
Emergence of hierarchy from the evolution of individual influence in an agent-based model. In Proceedings of the 14th European Conference on Artificial Life 2017, (348-355
The sudden transition from egalitarian groups to hierarchical societies that occurred with the origin of agriculture is one of the most striking features of the evolution of h...
An evolutionary model explaining the Neolithic transition from egalitarianism to leadership and despotism.
Journal Article
Powers, S. T., & Lehmann, L. (2014)
An evolutionary model explaining the Neolithic transition from egalitarianism to leadership and despotism. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281, 20141349-20141349. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.1349
The Neolithic was marked by a transition from small and relatively egalitarian groups, to much larger groups with increased stratification. But the dynamics of this
remain poo...
How institutions shaped the last major evolutionary transition to large-scale human societies
Journal Article
Powers, S. T., van Schaik, C. P., & Lehmann, L. (2016)
How institutions shaped the last major evolutionary transition to large-scale human societies. Philosophical Transactions B: Biological Sciences, 371(1687), 20150098. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0098
What drove the transition from small-scale human societies centred on kinship and personal exchange, to large-scale societies comprising cooperation and division of labour amo...
When is bigger better? The effects of group size on the evolution of helping behaviours: Effects of group size on evolution of helping
Journal Article
Powers, S. T., & Lehmann, L. (2017)
When is bigger better? The effects of group size on the evolution of helping behaviours: Effects of group size on evolution of helping. Biological Reviews, 92(2), 902-920. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12260
Understanding the evolution of sociality in humans and other species requires understanding how selection on social behaviour varies with group size. However, the effects of g...