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Social simulations aimed at representing fundamental social processes tend to use one flavor of economic model or another, where the actor is assumed to select the course of action which will maximize it's utility, whether through cold calculation or, as in exchange theoretic models, by repeating behaviors which have had previously positive consequences. A social norm, for instance, will be discussed in terms of costs of enforcement/compliance, prestige, and so on... While this approach is useful (exchange theory in particular), it seems to me that in order to study human social processes through simulation the problem of meaning will have to be addressed. It is easy to describe a norm against unwarranted aggression from a functional perspective, and not too difficult to propose useful theories about how a system of norms and censures will balance the interest of the individual against the group, the particular meaning with which that norm is expressed and understood is an integral component of the behavior of a human social system. That is to say, it matters whether a norm against aggression is expressed as "Do unto others...", "You'll feel better about yourself if you're nice", "Don't hurt people or God will be mad", or is simply taken for granted and need not be articulated, because so much of culture and social change exists only on this mental landscape. While different ideologies may be expressions of functional necessities, conflicts between groups, and so on, they are also active agents of social change in and of themselves. The fact that thought systems are not readily amenable to modeling seems to be what keeps social simulation primitive. One comes across abundant simulations describing social norms, but few which attempt to model the emergence of culture, ideology, etc... I am interested in everyone's thoughts on how such issues can be addressed. Can social simulation advance to the point where systems of meaning fall more within our scope of study, and if so how? Or is it impossible to describe such things empirically? --Walter Luke %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%