The physical sciences have come across complex systems for which global behaviors are difficult to model by traditional mathematical means. For example, it has been difficult to find global equations by which to model turbulence, or predict the weather. Increasingly, scientists have turned to computer-based simulations that model the local rules of behavior of individual elements of the systems. Global phenomena emerge from these local interactions. For example, for turbulence each individual air molecule is modeled and the overall turbulence pattern emerges from their simple local interactions.;This thesis describes the construction and use of such a simulator: ChimpWorld. ChimpWorld is a general architecture for societal simulation that has been applied to a particular domain: chimpanzee societies. The individual elements of the system are independent yet socially-linked AI-based agents--in this case chimpanzees. Their socially guided actions and motivations create dynamic societies.;Thus, ChimpWorld is a "wind tunnel for the social and organizational sciences": it allows different social organizations, individuals, and physical environments to be dynamically tested so that the results can be compared to real societies. Via such comparisons scientists can build, test, and refine their societal and organizational theories. Hence, this thesis is intended for social scientists interested in a new technology and what has been learned from it about social agents and societies, as well as for cognitive scientists and AI researchers interested in the nature of social minds.;Clearly, social systems are at least as complex. And similarly social scientists have found it difficult to discover global equations for social systems. And while some social scientists have taken the opposite tack of writing essays--not equations!--that reveal the local complexity of social systems, these efforts fall short in precision. A computational societal simulator offers an opportunity for formal precision while still embracing the complexity of social agents and the relations and rituals that bind them.
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