Cultural Collapse and System Survival Due to Environmental Modification

Computation

Graeme J. Ackland¹  Adrien Y. M. Henry¹  Alexander Williams¹ 

[1] School of Physics, the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK; E-Mails:

关键词: environment;    feedback;    civilisations;    history;    anthropology;    prehistory;   

DOI  :  10.3390/computation2030083

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.