They create artificial landscapes inhabited by heterogeneous populations of agents.
Society then emerges from the interactions of the agents.
One important result of this research has been the formation of artificial economies that are intrinsically non-equilibrium in character, thus calling into question academic accounts of economic processes which rely soley on analogies to mechanical equilibrium. Artificial societies are also useful for studying interdisciplinary questions, such as how genetic evolution depends on social norms and customs. The CD-ROM version of the book contains forty animations of an artificial society known as the Sugarscape. An interactive demonstration of life on the Sugarscape will be part of this presentation.