Founded 2016 · Long Beach, NY

Society, simply simulated.
Explained.

We apply the new science of computation — agent based models, genetic programming, and minimal models of systems using the mathematical principles of biology, genetics and ecology — to provide explanations for the complex adaptive behaviors of society.

View our research
Perspective

"We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people.

We do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard."

— John F. Kennedy, Rice University, 1963

01 /

Selected Publications

2025
Death Taxes and Inequality
John C. Stevenson
Advances in Social Simulation: Proceedings of the 19th Social Simulation Conference
InequalityAgent-Based Modelling
2025
Low Total Fertility in Simple Economic Systems
John C. Stevenson
submitted to: Proceedings of the 2025 Conference of The Computational Social Science Society of the Americas
InequalityAgent-Based Modelling
2024
Local Sharing and Sociality Effects on Wealth Inequality in a Simple Artificial Society
John C. Stevenson
Advances in Social Simulation: Proceedings of the 18th Social Simulation Conference
InequalityAgent-Based Modelling
2023
The Struggle for Existence: Time, Memory and Bloat
John C. Stevenson
Proceedings of the Companion Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation
Evolutionary ComputationArtificial Life
2023
Competitive Exclusion in an Artificial Foraging Ecosystem
John C. Stevenson
ALIFE 2023: Ghost in the Machine: Proceedings of the 2023 Artificial Life Conference
Artificial LifeAgent-Based Modelling
2023
Towards Eusociality Using an Inverse Agent Based Model
John C. Stevenson
Advances in Social Simulation 2023: Proceedings of the 17th Social Simulation Conference
Evolutionary ComputationAgent-Based Modelling
2022
Dynamics of Wealth Inequality in Simple Artificial Societies
John C. Stevenson
Advances in Social Simulation: Proceedings of the 16th Social Simulation Conference
InequalityAgent-Based Modelling
2022
Agentization of Two Population-Driven Models of Mathematical Biology
John C. Stevenson
Proceedings of the 2021 Conference of The Computational Social Science Society of the Americas
Agent-Based ModellingArtificial Life
2021
Population and Inequality Dynamics in Simple Economies
John C. Stevenson
arXiv preprint
InequalityAgent-Based Modelling
2016
The Value of Millisecond Expiry Options in Spot Foreign Exchange Markets
John C. Stevenson
Journal of Governance & Regulation, Vol. 5, No. 4
Finance
2008
Options Embedded in Physical Money
John C. Stevenson
SSRN 1313665
Finance
1990
Autonomous Landing on Mars
John C. Stevenson
13th Annual AAS Guidance and Control Conference
Aerospace
02 /

Presentations

2026
Measure of Senate Extremism with K-means
John C. Stevenson
Presentation
2024
Economics and Complexity Seminar 2024
CEIICH-CEPHCIS-UNAM
John C. Stevenson
Death, Taxes and Inequality — Complexity Emerges from a Simple ABM of an Economy
Presentation
03 /

Perspectives

"

The pasture is the commons. All may graze; all are tempted to push their share to the utmost, in short time the whole stock perishes.

— William Lloyd, Two Lectures on the Checks to Population, 1833

"

The social insects ... represent the most advanced forms of social evolution ... are based on rigid genetic programming rather than cultural evolution.

— E. O. Wilson, Sociobiology, 2000

"

It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.

— Albert Einstein, 2011

04 /

Our Mission

The Long Beach Institute applies the new science of computation — agent based models, genetic programming, and minimal models of systems using the mathematical principles of biology, genetics and ecology — to provide explanations for the complex adaptive behaviors of society.

Research Pillars

Wealth Inequality

Is wealth inequality a systemic property of societies that can store wealth?

Legislative Governance

Is extreme political polarization a systemic property of democratic legislative structures in free societies?

Computational Methods

Developing minimal models of social systems with agent based models, stochastic processes and genetic programming that agree with the mathematical principles of biology, genetics and ecology.

Policy & Society

Translating computational findings into evidence for social policy at national and international scales.

n