Resumen de International Futures:: Using Computer Simulation to Demonstrate Economic and Socio‐political Change
Although there is considerable interest and debate over the use of computer simulations in the investigation of economic, social and political change, there has not been until now an interactive, sophisticated, ‘hands on’ simulation available to teachers and students. IFs90 meets this need by providing a global simulation which can be run on a standard IBM compatible machine. IFs90 is built on five major interlinked sub‐models which simulate ‐ for each often geographic regions ‐ population, economic, energy, agricultural and political developments from the year 1990 up to 2035. It allows the construction of ‘what if type scenarios according to the user's values and prescriptions and the exploration and analysis of trends and causal relationships. The model can be used to investigate a wide range of problems such as resource shortages, population growth, food production, atmospheric pollution and political conflict. This article seeks to outline the structure of IFs90 and to demonstrate its usefulness and educative value to the student and the teacher.
