Abstract

There seems to be an overarching historical process in which life in small groups has evolved into life in large societies. This paper describes the design of a simulator for the study of that process. The simulator is named after David Hume (1711–1776), who presented a rich, informal, and still modern theory about the problems, useful inventions, and driving mechanisms in the evolution from small groups to large societies. HUME1.0 is a simulator that is meant to cover the interplay of some key factors and forces in that process. The focus is on division of labor, possible gains from specialization, risky exchange with more or less distant others, possible fraud, moral control, and (at the next stage) establishment of monitoring and punishing authorities. Finally, we discuss the status, purposes, and relevance of simulators like HUME1.0 that create well-defined artificial worlds and allow for some (thought) experimenting with them.