A major objective of this monograph is to present an agent-based
simulation of artificial populations. The focus is on possible
unexpected or catastrophic events that may spontaneously appear in
simulations. A short recall of the tenets of the theory of catastrophes
is given. Several examples of artificial society simulations are
provided as the main topic of the book. With agent-based modeling,
possible catastrophes and unexpected events in artificial populations
are simulated. The book presents a new modeling and simulation tool,
applied to social system simulation. The models are coded in the object-
and agent-oriented language Bluesss (Blues Simulation System), related
to the C++ language. The program code consists of a series of generic
declarations of processes. Each of them includes a number of events that
are coded in C++. At the runtime, a population of objects is generated.
All the objects (agents) start to execute their own events, and interact
with one another. During the simulations it is possible to observe the
macro-behavior of the population, where some unexpected or
"catastrophic" events occur. The examples include a stock market crash,
catastrophes in extended prey-predator systems, growing organisms and
cancer, epidemics, social inequality and economic decay, mass-service
systems, and more. Remarks on possible simultaneous events are also
included.