Natural Science 0107 - Games, Systems, and Sustainability

This course, building on a renaissance in game development, will use a variety of games to explore concepts from several fields of mathematics, nearly all of which are pertinent to the study and management of complex systems. We will play games. We will identify and analyze key concepts and structures within those games. We will use that analysis to improve our game playing. Then we will turn that same analytical lens onto the real world. Throughout the course, we will see that the dynamics and concepts that appear in our games (e.g. exponential growth) also appear with surprising regularity in systems we care about and that are important to the sustainability of the human enterprise. Keywords:Games, Systems, Probability, Strategy

Environments and Change Students should expect to spend 6-8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.