Abstract
This paper presents a multi-agent system which has been developed in order to test our theories of language evolution. We propose that language evolution is an emergent behaviour, which is influenced by both genetic and social factors and show that a multi-agent approach is thus most suited to practical study of the salient issues. We present the hypothesis that the original function of language in humans was to share navigational information, and show experimental support for this hypothesis through results comparing the performance of agents in a series of environments. The approach, based loosely on the Songlines of Australian Aboriginal culture, combines individual exploration with exchange of information about resource location between agents. In particular, we study how the degree to which language use is beneficial varies with a particular property of the environment structure, that of the distance between resources needed for survival.
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Bartlett, M., Kazakov, D. (2005). Comparing Resource Sharing with Information Exchange in Co-operative Agents, and the Role of Environment Structure. In: Kudenko, D., Kazakov, D., Alonso, E. (eds) Adaptive Agents and Multi-Agent Systems II. AAMAS AAMAS 2004 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3394. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32274-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32274-0_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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