Editorial Introduction to the Artificial Life Conference 2016 Special Issue is presented. Artificial life has been able to touch other areas of study besides biology. ALife's ability to bring forth adaptive and robust solutions to dynamic and complex situations is especially well suited to tackling wicked problems. That ability to work with complex social phenomena comes from its very inception. ALife has been open to a diversity of topics, including social, linguistic, and cultural issues, which are not limited to human behavior. A quick review of the ALife and ECAL conference proceedings of the last decade shows some patterns in the exploration of social phenomena from the perspective of artificial life.