Emergence of Stable Societal Coordination in a Minimally Constrained Riverine Environment

We present a computational study examining whether stable societal coordination can emerge in the absence of predefined institutions, symbolic systems, or hierarchical organization. The modeled system represents an abstract riverine socio-ecological environment driven by seasonal energy fluxes and resource variability, inspired by early flood-based landscapes. The system evolves under minimal assumptions, incorporating population mobility, ecological feedback, and information persistence without imposing explicit social structures or optimization goals. Across large ensemble runs, the model consistently exhibits the spontaneous emergence of spatially localized, stable coordination centers characterized by low topology variance and sustained causal coherence under stochastic perturbations. Quantitative analysis demonstrates convergence toward a finite attractor regime, with persistent structures arising from environmental regularity and feedback alone. These results suggest that predictable ecological cycles can function as an information substrate capable of supporting early forms of social organization prior to monumentality, formal institutions, or symbolic encoding. The findings contribute to broader discussions on the physical and informational prerequisites for early societal emergence and highlight the role of environmental stability in shaping pre-institutional human coordination.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2025-12-25
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18050373
Primary Topic
Ecosystem dynamics and resilience
Type
article
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article

Emergence of Stable Societal Coordination in a Minimally Constrained Riverine Environment

Drew Slawson
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Ecosystem dynamics and resilience
article

Emergence of Stable Societal Coordination in a Minimally Constrained Riverine Environment

Drew Slawson
article en

Abstract

We present a computational study examining whether stable societal coordination can emerge in the absence of predefined institutions, symbolic systems, or hierarchical organization. The modeled system represents an abstract riverine socio-ecological environment driven by seasonal energy fluxes and resource variability, inspired by early flood-based landscapes. The system evolves under minimal assumptions, incorporating population mobility, ecological feedback, and information persistence without imposing explicit social structures or optimization goals. Across large ensemble runs, the model consistently exhibits the spontaneous emergence of spatially localized, stable coordination centers characterized by low topology variance and sustained causal coherence under stochastic perturbations. Quantitative analysis demonstrates convergence toward a finite attractor regime, with persistent structures arising from environmental regularity and feedback alone. These results suggest that predictable ecological cycles can function as an information substrate capable of supporting early forms of social organization prior to monumentality, formal institutions, or symbolic encoding. The findings contribute to broader discussions on the physical and informational prerequisites for early societal emergence and highlight the role of environmental stability in shaping pre-institutional human coordination.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Lumen (United Kingdom) (GB)
Openalex Percentile: Top 36%
Ecosystem dynamics and resilience
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