Project Abstract
This project explores a central question: what caused some small Midwest American towns to thrive while others withered over the last 150 years? Using a "historical digital twin" approach, this simulation models the physical, social, and economic changes driven by major technological shifts like the railroad, the automobile, and the internet.
The core of this exhibit is an interactive, agent-based model where you can observe the patterns of growth and decline, and run 'what-if' scenarios to test how different historical events might have changed a town's fate.