I've been thinking about similar things as educational tools, calling it interactive and illustrative simulation.
The idea is help people (kids and adults) learn a variety of real-life complex systems, such as free-markets (and how they do and don't work), game theory and social behavior, the impact of money in politics, the impact of advertising on the economy and web content, etc.
Users could control sliders to compare ideal situations to reality. For example, they can reduce to zero "consumer gullibility to advertising", "consumer myopia", max out "consumer intelligence", and see how the invisible hand of the free market works well. Then they can move the sliders into reality (They get to decide for themselves how far over), and see how the free market breaks down, and effects such as the Mathew Effect (rich get richer).
The idea is help people (kids and adults) learn a variety of real-life complex systems, such as free-markets (and how they do and don't work), game theory and social behavior, the impact of money in politics, the impact of advertising on the economy and web content, etc.
Users could control sliders to compare ideal situations to reality. For example, they can reduce to zero "consumer gullibility to advertising", "consumer myopia", max out "consumer intelligence", and see how the invisible hand of the free market works well. Then they can move the sliders into reality (They get to decide for themselves how far over), and see how the free market breaks down, and effects such as the Mathew Effect (rich get richer).
Overlapping thoughts?