[S3 Discussion] Fuller's "World Game" about cybernetics-club

[tarngerine]

needed a comprehensive database that would provide the players of the world game with better data than their politically elected or appointed counterparts. They needed an inventory of the world's vital statistics--where everything was and in what quantities and qualities, from minerals to manufactured goods and services, to humans and their unmet needs as well as capabilities

---

This reminded me of the cybernetics film where they tried to simulate an ecosystem by trying to measure everything - a seemingly impossible task

Same as predicting weather 100% - it's always forecasts and estimation bc of the lack of granularity in measurement (we can't measure literally every single atom in the atmosphere)

[frnsys]

the illogic of 200 nation state admirals all trying to steer the spaceship in different directions is made clear through the metaphor

i sympathize with this but i wonder what the alternative he proposes is

as well in Fuller's more caustic assessment of nation states as “blood clots” in the world's global metabolism.

🔥

---

The logic for the use of the word “game” in the title is even more instructive. It says a lot about Fuller's approach to governance and social problem solving. Obviously intended as a very serious tool, Fuller choose to call his vision a “game” because he wanted it seen as something that was accessible to everyone, not just the elite few in the power structure who thought they were running the show.

---

Fuller wanted a tool that would be accessible to everyone, whose findings would be widely disseminated to the masses through a free press, and which would, through this ground-swell of public vetting and acceptance of solutions to society's problems,

the dream

also reminds me of Iain M. Banks' The Player of Games, where this civilization uses a Civilization-like game to determine the ideas that will guide the country (e.g. economic policy, foreign policy, etc)

[tarngerine]

I just want to play civ now

On Sat, Jul 16, 2016 at 6:48 PM -0400, "Francis Tseng" [email protected] wrote:

the illogic of 200 nation state admirals all trying to steer the spaceship in different directions is made clear through the metaphor

i sympathize with this but i wonder what the alternative he proposes is

as well in Fuller's more caustic assessment of nation states as “blood clots” in the world's global metabolism.

🔥

The logic for the use of the word “game” in the title is even more instructive. It says a lot about Fuller's approach to governance and social problem solving. Obviously intended as a very serious tool, Fuller choose to call his vision a “game” because he wanted it seen as something that was accessible to everyone, not just the elite few in the power structure who thought they were running the show.

Fuller wanted a tool that would be accessible to everyone, whose findings would be widely disseminated to the masses through a free press, and which would, through this ground-swell of public vetting and acceptance of solutions to society's problems,

the dream

also reminds me of Iain M. Banks' The Player of Games, where this civilization uses a Civilization-like game to determine the ideas that will guide the country (e.g. economic policy, foreign policy, etc)

—
You are receiving this because you authored the thread.
Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.

[michaelpace]

Fuller's "World Game", putting complex systems modeling into the hands of more people

---

buckminster fuller thought we'd need a simulation of "the world as a whole,
    and not a piece meal approach that tackles our problems in
    what he called a “local focus hocus pocus” manner"

"We are, in Fuller's words, onboard Spaceship Earth, and the illogic
        of 200 nation state admirals all trying to steer the spaceship
        in different directions is made clear through the metaphor -
        as well in Fuller's more caustic assessment of nation states
        as “blood clots” in the world's global metabolism."

he called it a "game" because he wanted it to be accessible to all, not just the elite

"Fuller wanted a tool that would be accessible to everyone, whose
        findings would be widely disseminated to the masses through a
        free press, and which would, through this ground-swell of public
        vetting and acceptance of solutions to society's problems, ultimately
        force the political process to move in the direction that the
        values, imagination and problem solving skills of those playing
        the democratically open world game dictated"

"The World Game that Fuller envisioned was to be a place where
        individuals or teams of people came and competed, or cooperated, to:
        “Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible
        time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense
        or the disadvantage of anyone.”"