A Columbian College of Arts and Sciences professor used computational modeling to prove that human conflicts throughout history have a hidden pattern—a breakthrough that came to him while watching his son play video games.
This research shows there is a unified mathematical pattern in human conflict, said Neil Johnson, co-author of a new paper in the Journal of Computational Science. Humans engage in conflict in a way that is generally universal both within and across wars — and this common pattern can be used to predict casualties and plan strategies.