How God Makes God is not a game, but an interactive electronic book. It tells a story about money and the creation of wealth, about human emotions and intelligence, and it provides a theory for understanding the nature of gods and religion. Probability concepts and games theory are used to tie the various dialogues together.
This CD is not easy to categorize. It is one of the first attempts I have seen to teach ideas in a true interdisciplinary fashion. Educators trying to explain how mathematics plays a role in the more metaphysical aspects of human existence will find this CD to be a wellspring of great ideas.
I found the program interface very easy to use, but unnecessarily slow. The design of the program is well thought-out, and you are easily led along on a very thought-provoking journey. The graphics are interesting and at times quite amusing. There is no music and the sound effects are minimal.
There are portions of this CD that would be ideal for use in teaching basic probability and games theory in an introductory statistics course. Interactive computer simulations allow the user to perform probability experiments (like flipping coins and rolling dice) quickly and easily. Easy-to-follow dialogues amongst animated characters explain many of the basic concepts of probability. The CD also delves into gambling and odds. I do not think this CD would be very useful in any other traditional community college math courses.
Note: Peter Small is an author and developer of multimedia. He is currrently writing a book on advanced techniques for Macromedia Director and how it fits into the future of the World Wide Web
To me, the techniques and the technical aspects of the CD-ROM pale into insignificance when compared to the compelling evidence described on the CD-ROM that life, as we experience it, is a direct result of evolutionary processes (this would of course rule out any hope that we are anything more than chemical machines).
Particularly convincing to me is the way in which chance and probability can cause the formation of highly complex emotions - as illustrated with genetic algorithms. Even more impressive is the way probability acts at a group level to optimize individual emotions to benefit a group as opposed to the individual.
Recent research has provided much indirect evidence for genetic influences on emotions and behavior patterns (not included on my CD-ROM), so, I think my conclusions are not far off the mark.
My own unique contribution to all this theory is in linking economic success strategies to the evolutionary process. To my knowledge, you will not find this in any other literature. Not only does this provide a mathematically logical basis for the emergence of religion, but also explains the phenomenon of conscience.
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Alan Levine --}
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URL: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/labyforum/win96/win96L8.html