The Lexicon Observatory

An agent-based simulation of emergent culture from local interaction. A small population of agents starts with no shared words, no stories, and no rules. As they talk to one another — and copy one another — a vocabulary, a drifting myth, and a taboo assemble themselves out of nothing. The selection pressure isn't a fitness function; it's social transmission.

The whole thing is one self-contained HTML file with no build step and no dependencies (web fonts load from Google Fonts).

What it models

• Naming game — agents coordinate on a shared word for each referent (Steels-style semiotic dynamics).
• Myth drift — a narrative is passed agent-to-agent and mutates like a game of telephone.
• Taboo & norms — prohibitions spread, get enforced, and can be backed by a metanorm.
• Transmission biases — prestige bias (copy high-status agents) and conformist bias (copy the majority).
• Topology — well-mixed (global consensus) vs. spatial (persistent regional dialects).

Every stochastic choice is drawn from a single seeded PRNG (mulberry32), so any run is fully reproducible from its seed.

Run it locally

It's a static file — just open it in a browser:

open lexicon.html        # macOS

Or serve the folder if you prefer a real origin:

python3 -m http.server 8000
# then visit http://localhost:8000

Deploy to GitHub Pages

This repo deploys automatically via GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/deploy.yml).

1. Push the repo to GitHub.
2. In the repository, go to Settings → Pages and set Source to GitHub Actions.
3. Every push to main builds and publishes the site.

index.html redirects to lexicon.html, so the published site loads the simulation at the root URL.

Scope & honesty

The model reuses evolving-population machinery (variation, copying, differential propagation) but replaces the objective fitness function with social transmission: a trait spreads because it is imitated, trusted, or enforced — not because it is "better." Depending on parameters the engine can land in consensus, fragmentation, or endless drift; none of those is a bug. The mechanics are inspired by research traditions (naming games associated with Luc Steels; norm/metanorm dynamics associated with Robert Axelrod) — verify the primary sources before quoting them.