Scalable Social Simulation: Investigating Population-Scale Phenomena Using Commodity Computing

Agent-based simulation models provide a way to investigate social phenomena that complement existing social science methods. Recent advances in computing hardware such as the wide availability of multi-core CPUs and increased main memory capacities make it possible to investigate population-scale phenomena using commodity compute resources. This paper describes experiences made in the development of an example model that utilises multiple CPU cores and an investigation of the scalability of the resulting code. We argue that commodity compute resources and commoditised simulation frameworks can now be used to simulate real-world populations and to use these simulations to investigate social phenomena such as migration.