Cultural Collapse and System Survival Due to Environmental Modification

We consider a simple mathematical approach to the rise and fall of societies based on population growth and its effects on the environment, both beneficial and detrimental. We find that in any simple model of population dynamics with environmental coupling, stable cultures are impossible. Population...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inComputation Vol. 2; no. 3; pp. 83 - 101
Main Authors Ackland, Graeme, Henry, Adrien, Williams, Alexander, Cohen, Morrel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published MDPI AG 01.09.2014
Subjects
anthropology
civilisations
environment
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Summary:We consider a simple mathematical approach to the rise and fall of societies based on population growth and its effects on the environment, both beneficial and detrimental. We find that in any simple model of population dynamics with environmental coupling, stable cultures are impossible. Populations inevitably grow or decline exponentially. Further, if the parameters defining a civilisation are allowed to evolve towards an evolutionarily stable state, the only possible solutions are those where each culture ultimately declines. However, computer simulation with multiple competing cultures show that while each eventually collapses, some are always extant and the system is robust. In this broad class of models, individual death is a requirement for system survival.
ISSN:2079-3197
2079-3197
DOI:10.3390/computation2030083