Sustainable Altruism: Simulating the Future of Prosociality and Peacebuilding—A Conceptual Review

Abstract

In this article, we argue for the potential value of participatory multi-agent artificial intelligence (MAAI) modeling for addressing the pragmatic challenge of promoting a sustainable altruism among individuals and groups that will enable us to find pathways of collective action that lead toward more peaceful coexistence. Along the way, we note that this approach to modeling also addresses the scientific challenge within computer science and social simulation of creating more psychologically realistic artificial agents whose interactions occur in more realistic social networks. We identify some of the evolved cognitive and coalitional biases that make it so difficult to achieve an equilibrium of sustainable altruism in contemporary human societies, describe some of the innovative ways in which recent advances in MAAI approaches to psychological and cultural modeling open up new opportunities for simulating solutions to these challenges, and address some of the ethical issues associated with using modeling and simulating methods to help us proactively navigate the Anthropocene.