External stores: Simulating the evolution of storing goods and its effects on human behaviour
Human beings possess external stores in which they put all sorts of goods to use them at some later time. In this paper we investigate this typically human adaptation using agent-based simulations. We show that the use of external stores explains many aspects of human life, allowing
the agents to reduce their dependence on both the environment and the current state of their body and to be more efficient in extracting the energy contained in the environment. We analyse the spatial behaviour of agents with external stores located in specific positions of the environment
and we find that these agents tend to develop a sedentary life. We discuss how stores can be at the origin of many human mental and social phenomena such as the acquisition of a more extended temporal perspective, specialisation in producing different types of goods, and exchange of goods.
Keywords: External stores; agent-based simulation; evolutionary robotics; sedentarism
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 January 2015
- Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems
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