NewWorld Simulation

The NewWorld software simulates the long term effect on populations of various behaviors including various degrees of conservation (or the lack thereof) as well as cheating, warring, peaceful solidarity, and generousity. The survival and success of the animals is tracked, so that you can experiment with different situations and behaviors, to see what works well and what doesn't.

The NewWorld simulation was designed in order to test a very generic theory of ethics. This theory, called Universal Ethics is sufficiently generic that it could be applied to various form of life, not just humans. This is useful because it helps us get past the typical discrimintory practices that have created difficulties for people over human history. Moreover, in the event that we were ever to discover any intelligent life outside of our solar system, we can identify some foundational ethical principles that would likely apply to both them and us.

To find out more about real-world applications of universal ethics, check out the web site: http://www.UniversalEthics.org. Real world ethics is more complicated than in the simulated world, but the simulation demonstrates some basic principles.

Here are some screenshots that show you how it works. The first one show the program launcher after you have installed the software and accepted the license agreement:

You have the option of running some predefined experiments, or you can create your own. To create your own, you define the initial population along and the behaviors of each kind of animal:

If you aren't sure what the parameters mean, you can position the cursor into andy field and press F1 for an explanation. Or you can accept default values. After saving the specifications, you run the simulation. It shows a map that illustrates the plants and animals, and some statistical graphs. The map looks like this:

As the simulation progresses, the map shows plants and animals appear (as they reproduce) and disappear (as they are eaten). This provides a visual representation of the population that is interesting to watch. Also you can watch the graphs as they change:

The graph screens let you monitor the populations, energy levels, and success of the various kinds of animals (including people). Animals can become extinct not just if too many are eaten, but also if they starve (run out of energy). For the animals that survive, you may find it interesting to monitor their "happiness" levels, based on five success measures that you can select for each kind of animal.

What kinds of behaviors produce survivability and happiness? These are important questions that philosphers have tried to answer since the beginning of time, but until now there has been no practical way to test even the most fundamental of theories. Now, thanks to modern computer simulation, we can run experiments across multiple generations in just a few minutes, and we can do it without putting any real people at risk!

This program isn't exactly a game. Maybe it's a toy, or maybe it's a tool. Feel free to try it out! Hopefully you will find it to be both fascinating and thought provoking.

Free NewWorld V3.1 download:

NewWorld is free to use and easy to install on any computer with Windows, from Windows 95 all the way up through Windows 11. That includes Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10, and 11. The newest release of NewWorld (V3.1) includes some adjustments so the online manual will display in newer versions of Windows, and to fix a few bugs.

To install the software, you would download a single NWSetupV3R1.exe file and run it on your computer. From that point the setup is self-evident. The download file is smaller than 2 Megabytes so it will download very quickly and the installation is very fast too.

Note: The NewWorld software is distributed by Freelance Wizards Inc. of Canada. When you run the install program on any newer version of Windows, Windows will verify the security certificate that is built into the installer and notify you that it is from Freelance Wizards.

Download icon Download NewWorld NWSetupV3R1.exe

The NewWorld Simulation web site is hosted by Freelance Wizards Inc. (Canada)