Natural Population Growth Simulation/Prototype

Hey everyone, I threw together a quick prototype to help demonstrate what natural population growth should look like (as years go on, population gradually multiplies at an increasingly faster rate)

I will update it soon to include more things such as choosing between sexual/asexual reproduction, and displaying what is effecting population growth.

Download

Please leave feedback, I want to develop this into a good reference point for everyone when we get into complex population growth dynamics.

Also, you may want to give the sim time. It took until the year 200 for the growth ball to really gain momentum.

Can you explain the processes that make this model?

Well, assuming that most populations (in a sexual reproductive one anyways) have a 50/50 ratio of male and female. I set a base growth of the total population divided by 2 and then used inclusive random to maintain a level of variability.

So a population of 500 will yield a 250 max possible growth without extraneous factors. Of course, that's simply not true when it comes to population growth. So I then set several constant modifiers that effect growth (which is multiplied by the random growth) These include things such as disease, population booms, war, famine, and more.

So suppose that with that 250 max growth, we roll 56, and then roll the famine modifier. This would result in a population loss of 21 people that year. (Of course I will adjust the constants if some people find the change too radical to be believable. I will also change the likelihood for certain modifiers to roll)

It's a neat prototype. Is this supposed to be modelling the population growth of a species once they have achieved intelligence? Like a tribe or a nation?

Exactly, I'm trying to model as close as I can the growth of a select population. I'll add more statistics later such as gender and wealth disparity.

When I download the prototype, it says it could harm my computer.

:confused: 

it may be harmful, it is just because that file type possibly could mess with your computer files, and the computer can't tell if the code is harmful or not so it warns you, that's why you should only download it from people or places you trust.

i assume this is safe though so... download away

I had a problem with it - according to my antivirus software, it contained two Trojans. I only found that out later, but it may be they're not in the program itself but rather found their way onto my system as it traversed the internet.

I scanned it and didn't find a problem with it.