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Parable of the Polygons Models Segregation Through a Flash Game

Parable of the Polygons Models Segregation Through a Flash Game

Vi Hart and Nicky Case made an amazing game called the Parable of the Polygons that models how segregation effects societies, and it’s pretty impactful… for a game featuring blue squares and yellow triangles.

Much like the game of life, this is a mathematical simulation of something that works on a much grander scale. The idea is that it models a society where everyone is just a little bit racist… er… shapist. When layed out on a grid, a shape only moves if less than 1/3 of its neighbors are like itself. To make that clear, 66% of a shapes neighbors can be different, meaning that they are really very ok with living in a mixed neighborhood, but they would just like to have a little bit of familiarity. In fact, shapes very much prefer being in a mixed neighborhood. It brings in culture and variety after all. When everyone is the same around them, they feel very “meh” as the game puts it.

So here is your job – move shapes around in order to satisfy these requirements. Each shape wants at least a third of its neighbors to be the same or else it will move. Otherwise it will stay put. You need to do this while making sure that the maximum amount of shapes stay happy.

And here comes the problem. As you move shapes around you notice something. As fewer and fewer shapes become unhappy, fewer and fewer shapes become happy. The only way to satisfy the simplest of requirements, a third of your neighbors being more like you, is to start separating. As you solve the puzzle, the communities of yellow triangles and blue squares separate themselves more and more. Mixed communities start to die out and while shapes on the border remain decently happy, almost everyone else lives a “meh” life, completely cut off from anyone who isn’t like them.

This happens with just a very small preference, and lest you think this is a problem with how you played the game, a few random simulations are also set up. In these simulations, unhappy shapes will move to random empty spaces until they find happiness. Only unhappy shapes will move though. Shapes in a state of “meh” will stay put with their “meh” life. Over time, communities become more and more segregated even with the existing 1/3 rule. If the preference is increased and shapes become more shapist, communities become even more segregated, soon splitting up huge sections of the map into lands dominated by only squares or triangles.

Parable of the Polygons Models Segregation Through a Flash Game

This pattern persists as long as shapes are OK with being “meh” in their lives. However, if you change up the simulation, and instead make shapes DEMAND integration, even 10%, things start changing. You can leave them with their slightly shapist preferences, but by also making them force themselves to demand variety in their neighborhood and moving if they don’t have it, communities become more and more integrated. In short, the way to stop segregation is by working on it. By forcing yourself into a place where people are different from you.

Head on over to the official Parable of the Polygons site and fool around with the simulation yourself. It might reveal a few things about society.

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