Award winning CD-ROM

How God Makes God

A toolbox of concepts for understanding probability, game theory, genetic algorithms and evolutionary strategies

Taking over three years to produce, this CD-ROM is a compilation of twenty-five years of experience in applying game theory and evolutionary strategies to business and real life situations. Originally entitled "A City of Concepts", it consists of 204 conceptual ideas, each explained in a way that makes them easy to understand.

To help with the explanations and to make the theoretical content more entertaining to read, a unique, animated comic book style is used. This allows the explanations to be in the form of dialgues. The characters and scenes for these dialogues are based upon 19th century engravings, which enable a subtle humor to be introduced into what could otherwise be heavy reading.

Accompanying these dialogues are many interactive games and animated models to explain the concepts of probability, game theory, genetic algorithms, evolutionary biology and simulated emotional control mechanisms.

A description of content

If you like exercising your mind, you will find this CD-ROM exhilarating. After all, it did win a major award, has received many rave reviews and in some areas even has a cult following.

The main attraction is the way in which it introduces and explains abstract concepts in an understandable way. The general idea is that each of 204 scenes presents the reader with a new concept. These 204 concepts progressively add together to build a complete conceptual framework to provide the reader with a unique, analytical way of thinking that can be applied both in social and business settings.

It teaches you how to think in terms of probabilities. It gives you a new understanding of groups and communication strategies. It shows you how to employ game theory to cope with competitive situations where there is risk and uncertainty.

Although covering fairly sophisticated ideas and theory the style is light hearted, even humorous at times, with no arcane language or mathematics. Difficult concepts are explained using drawings, animations and interactive games.

These are some of the main conceptual areas covered:

a) Understanding the patterns which emerge in probability theory by playing various games of chance.

b) Seeing money creation strategies in terms of trying to increase efficiency by competing for and arranging acts of cooperation.

c) Understanding John Maynard Kenynes' perceptive model of economic activity.

d) Putting a strategy for creating wealth into a game theory context.<

e) Understanding the concept of risk taking and working out how to take calculated risks.

f) Learning the essential corner stones of finance and the theory of money.

g) Understanding the simple ideas behind discounted cash flow, compound interest and exponential growth.

h) Comparing optimum strategies for creating wealth with the rules of major religions.

i) Seeing how rules can evolve in the same way that biological features can evolve in an organic structure.

j) Seeing the cell as a biological computer.

k) Looking at biological structures as information carrying networks of communicating cells.

l) The mathematical concepts driving evolution.

m) Seeing instinctive behavior patterns as being driven by combinations of evolved emotions triggered by environmental stimuli.

n) Using genetic algorithms to demonstrate how patterns of emotion and behavior can evolve to form a control system.

o) Speculations on the evolution of intelligent machines.

It is a lot to go through - it takes about 14 hours to read - but it is not as heavy as it looks. It builds up like a detective story, allowing you to compare your own developing thoughts with those of two guides who discuss with each other the implications of the succession of new ideas and concepts as they are presented.

The fun is in seeing if this exercise of the mind can make any significant difference to the way you look at life and think about your professional approach to business.

Why it is entitled How God Makes God

The title is of course the ultimate paradox. And this what the understanding of evolutionary strategies is about: the resolution of paradoxes. The second law of thermodynamics tell us that order and organization gradually degrades, but, evolution leads to greater not lesser organization. This CD-ROM explains how this paradox is resolved and shows how the same mechanisms that bring order and efficiency to biological organisms can be used by us in both social and business situations.

Note: Available for Macintosh computers only