The Generative Power of Signs: The importance of the Autonomous Perception of Tags to the Strong Emergence of Institutions

The first intelligent agent social model, in 1991, used tags with emergent meaning to simulate the emergence of institutions based on the principles of interpretive social science. This symbolic interactionist simulation program existed before Holland’s Echo, however, Echo and subsequent programs with tags failed to preserve the autonomy of perception of the agents that displayed and read tags. The only exception is Axtell, Epstein, and Young’s program on the emergence of social classes, who were influenced by the symbolic interactionist simulation program. Axtell Epstein and Young’s program has since been credited for strong emergence. This paper explains that autonomy of perception is the essential difference in the symbolic interactionist implementation of tags that enables this strong emergence.