Computer Simulation of Innovation Diffusion in a Peasant Village

Hamlet’s &dquo;play within a play&dquo; attempted to recreate the murder of his father in order to cause the suspected murderer, the King, to admit the crime. &dquo;If he but blench, I know my course&dquo; (Act II, Scene 2). The contrived reality of Hamlet’s play so closely approached the actual event, that the King not only &dquo;blenched,&dquo; but rushed from the room, thereby displaying his guilt. This article discusses the development of a social science &dquo;play&dquo; known as SINDI 1. Like Hamlet’s approach, it is an attempt to capture the essential elements of a complex process and reproduce them in a coherent form better known as &dquo;simulation.&dquo; The purposes of this article are: (1) to review briefly past research on the simulation of innovation diffusion; and (2) to describe SINDI 1, a computer simulation attempt at capturing the reality of diffusion in a peasant community 1

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