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Note: This is an excerpt from a draft of my thesis, A Computer Model of National Behavior. The introduction and table of contents are also available

4.2 Nations-in-Places

The relation between nations and places is complex. It has its own attributes can perform its own actions. In some ways it is closer to an “entity” or “object” than a relation. In the ER model this is valid. As importantly, such a complex relationship is the best approach for this model. Through the rest of this paper this relationship will be referred to as a nation-in-place. For convenience, in the remainder of this document a nation-in-place will be written “NP,” and the plural will be “NPs.”

NPs play several vital roles. They rationalize the apparent influence of regionalism in a world governed by nations. Collections of NPs determine the overall characteristics of nations themselves. NPs are the agents that can directly shape the attributes of a given place. Also, NPs present a critical method for the birth of new nations and so are vital in the implementation of a genetic approach.

A possible objection to a nation-based model is that the definition is nation is arbitrary. Even in a place where national feeling is completely shared among the people there will be differences in outlook depending on where one goes. Some places will be more inward looking, others might dislike the mannerism of some of their fellow countrymen, etc. To model this, one might have to create a new nation for each region of a country, even though these nations would have mostly identical attributes. NPs provide an alternate approach, which views this apparent dissonance as a necessary part of a national world view.

Modeling the force of regions, such as the impact that Bretons and Alsatians have in France, as the relation between nations and places is attractive for several reasons. First, it simplifies the model. There is no reason to add a new entity type if some behavior can be explained using existing entities and relations. Second, it matches a human view of the world in that the behavior of everything is affected by the land. This belief is far older than the concept of geopolitics, and the inclusion of NPs allows the model to retain this concept while still viewing history as nation-driven.

NPs are used to model the effect that places have on nations. Time is modeled as essentially a series of discrete moments where nations can act. However, nations have to be updated so that they continue to reflect facts “on the ground.” Implementation of NPs make this step much easier. A nation is recalibrated by averaging out the values of its constituent NPs; these averages become the new values that make up a nation. The weighted average is determined by the magnitude and density of the NP and the power, population, and wealth of a place, over all places where a nation exists. The specifics of the formula will be determined during the construction of the model. The values of the coefficients for these factors are a detail of implementation and before the model can be run, no precise values are better or worse than any others.

NPs also provide a feedback mechanism that affects places themselves. Though some changes are made purposefully by nations, and some changes are the result of momentum, places are nonetheless obviously affected by nations passively as well. The values of places can thus be altered by the averages of a place's NPs, which can be calculated by their magnitude and density. Unlike the above related calculations for recalibrating nations, the recalculation of places concerns only NPs that reside in that one particular place.

NPs provide the “splintering” mechanism that gives birth to new nations. The attributes of all things, but especially nations and places, are constantly changing. This allows for the natural evolution of nations and also introduces uncertainty. Differences in the environments in different places help rend nations apart. For example, a definite Dutch nation existed in both the Netherlands and southern Africa. However, a series of shocks lasting from the late 18^th to early 20^th centuries split off an Afrikaner nationality. Another famous example of this asexual reproduction is the revolution that created the United States of America from thirteen very British colonies.

NPs also give rise to births, which allow for national mixing and multi-parented new nations. The mechanism for this is as follows. Between each round where nations make decisions, the model calculates the new state of all entities as described above. As the national state is updated, new nations are created by essentially averaging the values of NPs in regional groupings of places. These new nations are much weaker than their parent nations, and so normally cannot compete – they would be absorbed back into their parents or starved. However, if the parent nation is undergoing significant stress then one or more child nations might be able to survive.

In this way, NPs yield a never ending stream of new generations of nations that are tossed into the mix. The young may begin as weak new variants that have a difficult time surviving. Just as with life, the selection process can be harsh and cause many useful features might die out due to unfair circumstances. This constant opportunity for development will never end until change itself stops and so the fitness of nations will be ever changing. NPs provide the lynch pin in this process and so are very appropriate in this genetic attempt to model national behavior.

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