Building An Ancestor Simulation #2

Mira Kennard has released 'Building An Ancestor Simulation #2' on LessWrong, a continuation of their project to model ancient human societies using a mesoscopic lens. Instead of simulating individual minds, the simulation looks at properties of small groups (7–15 people) operating under a gift economy—a system where social standing is maintained through generosity rather than hoarding. The key improvement over the previous version is the introduction of finite resource production and consumption: while ancient societies were affluent in terms of raw availability, turning resources into food required labor, creating a real constraint. The model draws heavily on Marshall Sahlins' 'Stone Age Economics', which argues that pre-agricultural peoples lived 'affluent' lives with minimal labor, but were not 'poor' in the modern sense.

Kennard's simulation is part of a broader effort to understand ancestral social dynamics without resorting to full-scale AI mind simulation. Future plans include adding specialization and resource variety. The simulation code is open-source on GitHub under the name 'Ancestor-Simulation'. While still early, this approach could offer insights into how gift economies manage finite resources, potentially informing both anthropology and AI-driven economic modeling.