Scientific value of increased social-simulation sophistication

Determine whether increasing the sophistication and complexity of social simulations leads to scientific progress in the study of Artificial Utopias, and characterize conditions under which added agent or model complexity produces more reliable insight rather than amplifying uncertainty.

Background

The paper questions the assumption that more complex agent models or higher-dimensional simulations necessarily yield better scientific insights. It highlights that simple rules can generate complex emergent phenomena and warns that increasing complexity may expand uncertainty in parameters and scenarios.

This raises a foundational methodological question for Artificial Utopia research about the relationship between simulation sophistication and scientific advance.