Modeling Endogenous Coordination Using a Dynamic Language

Dynamic languages are computer languages that allow programs to substantially restructure themselves while they are running. Interest in these kinds of programming languages has dramatically increased in the last few years. This paper builds on previous work by exploring the use of a popular dynamic language, namely Groovy, within the Repast Simphony (Repast S) platform. This language is applied to modeling the endogenous emergence of coordination within a group of social agents. This paper introduces the Endogenous Emergence of Coordination (EndEC) model. It then highlights many of the features in Groovy that were found to be particularly helpful during model implementation. This demonstrates the powerful and flexible capabilities that a dynamic language can bring to the creation of agent-based models. What is particularly exciting is the potential for creating truly dynamic and evolving open-ended simulations, where the simulation ­fundamentally changes as it executes.