Altruism as a mechanism for resource management

A persistent challenge that is manifested in many environments is how to effectively utilize and share resources among a population or across a system. This paper discusses the concept of altruism as a convention for resource management and utilization. A simple agent based simulation is introduced where agents share finite resources over iterative rounds of interaction. The agents and their ability to maintain sufficient resources were observed at varying levels of resource supply and altruism levels. Agents were left absent of kinship and social behavioral components in order to focus primarily on the effect the altruism component had on population health. It was found that at resource levels above 75% of demand, altruism levels of 60–80% provided for the optimal population health. While below 75%, a completely non-altruistic population achieved greater population health. In addition, the effectiveness of the altruism component is highly dependent on the sharing algorithm employed to manage resources.