Editing Agent-based model (section)

===Early developments===
The history of the agent-based model can be traced back to the [[Von Neumann universal constructor|Von Neumann machine]], a theoretical machine capable of reproduction. The device [[John von Neumann|von Neumann]] proposed would follow precisely detailed instructions to fashion a copy of itself. The concept was then built upon by von Neumann's friend [[Stanislaw Ulam]], also a mathematician; Ulam suggested that the machine be built on paper, as a collection of cells on a grid. The idea intrigued von Neumann, who drew it up—creating the first of the devices later termed [[cellular automata]].
Another advance was introduced by the mathematician [[John Horton Conway|John Conway]].  He constructed the well-known [[Conway's Game of Life|Game of Life]]. Unlike von Neumann's machine, Conway's Game of Life operated by simple rules in a virtual world in the form of a 2-dimensional [[checkerboard]].

The [[Simula]] programming language, developed in the mid 1960s and widely implemented by the early 1970s, was the first framework for automating step-by-step agent simulations.