Presentation for A Technology Diffusion Model.py (rough draft)

Описание: Below is the Narrative/Summary, pasted from my MSMS application (This is for people who do not have access to my application form):

In his book, Guns Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond theorized that technology spread better across similar latitudes, thus creating an advantage for wider continents. Also, a Brown University study (Ramachandran & Rosenberg, 2011) analyzing gene flow in relation to geography found that there has been greater gene variation across different latitudes, meaning that there is stronger migration across similar latitudes. The study concluded that its findings supported Diamond's theory because technology is diffused by the movement of people. Therefore, I sought to answer the following: Assuming it is true that technology does spread better across similar latitudes, is this factor alone enough to create an advantage for short and wide continents over tall and narrow ones? I hypothesized that this was indeed the case. To answer this question, I created a model of technological diffusion using Python 3.2 programming language (source code available at http://tinyurl.com/ATDMsource). (See presentation at http://tinyurl.com/ATDMvideo)

The model creates a world on a grid (a configuration of both land and water). Each tile of land on the grid represents a population. Each population has a technology value, which increases for each unique technology existing in the population. Each person in a population has a chance to create a new technology every iteration, and this chance increases with the population's technology value (as to simulate education). Connections are created between populations, and the maximum length of these connections increases with the technology value. Populations have a preference to create connections with populations that are closer to them, and this preference is amplified north to south. Technologies are spread across these connections every iteration.

The model excludes many factors that affect the success of a population in the real world. Every tile of land is considered to be equally capable of supporting human life. Previously, the model created randomly generated worlds using the Diamond-Square algorithm (an algorithm used to create realistic terrain); however, I found that using random worlds caused the results to be less meaningful than if I simply created worlds with a single elliptical continent. Furthermore, the model initially increased the population of a tile as the technology value increased. However, after analyzing population maps of the real world, I was unable to find any correlation between technological advancement and population. In reality, the world's population did not increase much until the industrial revolution. My model aims to simulate a pre-industrial revolution world, and so I decided to keep population static throughout the simulation.

Using my model, I found that under certain conditions a horizontally aligned ellipse would consistently advance in average technological value faster than a vertically aligned ellipse of the same size. I conclude that a latitudinal preference for technological diffusion can be enough to create a technological advantage for wider continents if all other factors are equal.