AccountGEEP Gallery Each spring in Denmark, millions of European starlings (sturnus vulgaris) gather in giant swarms photographed above. The phenomenon is called Black Sun (in Denmark). The patterns of flocking in birds is a wonderful example of emergent group behavior. In 1986, Craig Reynolds created some influential simulations showing how this behavior can be described by a set of simple rules each bird might follow. Read more about his agent-based models of flocking behavior here. ("Black Sun" photographs courtesy of NASA's Earth Science Picture of the Day).
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About the GEEPHave you ever been a part of or seen a "human wave" traveling around a big sports stadium?In the human wave, each person follows a simple rule: if the people immediately to one side of you stand up, you should stand up also. When they sit down, you should too. Each person following this simple rule gives rise to larger, collective pattern: a traveling wave. 
The simple example of the "human wave" in a soccer stadium shares interesting similarities with a wide range of important human behaviors in which the contribution of many interacting individuals gives rise to interesting patterns in the aggregate. For example, individual people help create rumors, standard currency, transportation systems, the World Wide Web, resource harvesting, crowding, trail systems, roads, and scientific establishments. These higher-level organizations arise because of individuals' beliefs and goals, but the eventual form that these phenomena take is rarely the goal of any individual. GEEP is a system for better understanding the emergent behavior of groups. In GEEP many individuals interact in real-time playing simple games through the web. For example, in some GEEP games, individuals try to solve a puzzle together such as guessing a hidden number, or drawing a hidden picture. In other games, individuals each try to forage for food pellets in a virtual world in order to win the most points, however, the success of each person is influenced by the behavior of others in the game and how people decided to crowd around good feeding spots. Our goal with GEEP is to scientifically observe, explain, and model how groups of people behave. Our games provide a controlled environment for studying group behavior. Our typical research cycle is to first observe group behavior in a GEEP game, and then to develop agent-based computational models of the behavior we observe. By participating in these experiments, you can find out what it feels like to be part of larger group with a mind of its own. 
In many of the GEEP games the others you play against are not limited to human "agents" playing from all over the world. In fact, the same computational models we develop in the lab as working models of human behavior also show up from time to time as "bots" that act as virtual players. Even theories need to place to unwind! We hope you take a look around, play some GEEP games, and learn more about some interesting current research on collective behavior from our lab and others! GEEP Blog
Team
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