^C^1THE VOTING GAME
^CBy Charlie Brown


  THE VOTING GAME is one of those programs that should interest a wide range 
of people.  For mathematicians, the program illustrates "how a random process 
converges into a final state." 

  If that last phrase sounded like so much mumbo-jumbo to you, don't worry. 
To help the rest of us to understand, the program uses terms from the world of 
politics. 

  Have you ever wondered what would happen if everyone imitated his neighbor 
in choosing which clothes to wear, which car to buy, which candidate to vote 
for?  The citizens of Charlie Brown's VOTING GAME do just that: with every 
tick of the clock, a voter selected at random changes his opinion to that of 
his neighbor. 

  In this mathematical simulation, voters may hold one of two opinions -- a two
party system, if you would. Ultimately, though, conformity rules and one party 
prevails. 

  Two other options in the program show the consequences of contrariness and 
peer-pressure. In the "Anti-Voting Game", every voter votes opposite of a 
randomly chosen neighbor, and in the "Majority Voting Game", the voter votes 
according to the majority choice.  (You choose the size of their society by 
selecting a grid pattern). 

  While these games aren't sociological simulations, their final stages are 
thought-provoking.  "Monkey see, monkey do" can lead to unfortunate 
consequences when the voters are real. 


DISK FILES THIS PROGRAM USES:
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^FVOTING.EXE
^FBRUN20.EXE
^FRETURN.EXE