MIT launches Innovation Futures game

By Alun Williams

Posted on 11 Nov 2003 at 11:51

A new game launched in a publication backed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) lets you bet on the future of technological developments.

Java Today reports the launch of Innovation Futures, where you purchase predictions of future outcomes and compete against fellow players in a trading environment.

Playing with 'xDollars', you attempt to predict the outcome of various news events supplied by the publication, for example When will Google have an IPO?. The available 'contracts' are variously priced, but winning ones become worth x$100. The point is that you can also trade your predictions on a market in the run up to the final event, and you can even presell contracts that you haven't bought yet, i.e. short selling.

All very involved. Full details on the game can be found in the User Guide on the Technology Review website.

MIT describes it thus: 'Innovation Futures, like any speculative market, aggregates the individual expertise and opinions of well-informed and well-motivated traders into a single easily understood number: a stock's trading price. This number can be taken as indicating the collectively agreed-upon likelihood of a particular outcome in the real-world.'

Prizes include a 50-in plasma TV, an iPOD and Amazon.com gift certificates. The game requires registration.