Game B vs Game A

From: jimruttshow8596

The concepts of Game A and Game B describe the current state of civilization and a potential alternative path forward. Game A represents the prevailing way humanity has organized itself, characterized by competition and power dynamics. Game B is an emergent, collaborative alternative aiming to navigate global challenges and create a more desirable future [00:33:00] [01:10:09].

Game A

Game A describes the enduring patterns of human civilization, largely driven by an increase in technological capability within a context of competition [00:03:07] [00:46:00]. This system, while leading to advancements, is inherently unstable and prone to collapse due to accelerating destructive capacities and systemic fragilities [00:10:50].

Existential Risks and Fragilities

• Catastrophic Conflict The first time humanity faced truly catastrophic outcomes from conflict was after World War II with nuclear weapons [00:27:00]. The modern era extends this risk to biological warfare (e.g., through technologies like CRISPR) and cyber warfare, where smaller entities or individuals can wield destructive power previously limited to nation-states [00:05:18].
• Systemic Fragility A highly technological civilization introduces significant fragility, making essential systems like the power grid vulnerable to disruption through various vectors, including EMP, drone swarms, or cyberattacks [00:06:33].
• Game Theoretical Traps Competition within Game A creates game theoretical traps, where actors are compelled to make reckless choices to avoid falling behind, as seen in the arms race in AI research [00:07:53]. This leads to a heedless drive forward, even when the risks are known [00:08:02].
• Ecosystem Limits The current model of civilization is approaching or has exceeded the long-term carrying capacity of the ecosystem, with increasing populations and rising average lifestyles producing more externalities that disrupt homeostatic equilibrium [00:09:00].

The “War on Sense-Making”

A critical aspect of Game A’s decline is the “war on sense-making,” where advanced cognitive neuroscience and AI-enhanced marketing are used to manipulate human choice-making [00:12:00]. This disrupts individuals’ capacity to understand the world and make effective choices [00:12:53]. This phenomenon can be likened to an “autoimmune disease” of sense-making, where the very tools meant for understanding become agents of distortion [00:14:09].

The Sense of “Wrongness”

Historical critiques of Game A, such as Marx’s concept of alienation and the 1960s’ focus on inauthenticity, highlight a deep-seated “wrongness” or fragmentation within the system [01:03:51] [01:04:33]. Despite its ability to deliver material goods, Game A often alienates individuals from a holistic life and work, and from their authentic selves [01:04:01].

Game B

Game B is envisioned as a “meta protocol for hyper collaboration” [01:17:16], designed to navigate complexity without relying on complicated systems, and aiming for a “truly amazing future” [00:16:13] [00:00:00]. It emphasizes significant upgrades in individual and collective capacity for thought and action [00:02:22].

Core Attributes

The core architectural attributes of Game B include being:

• Non-hierarchical [00:24:40]
• Network-oriented [00:24:40]
• Long-term metastable [00:24:43]

Optimism for Game B’s Emergence

Despite Game A’s current dominance, there is optimism for Game B’s eventual emergence because it is designed to have a “higher exponent” of growth than Game A [00:43:04]. This is based on the concept of the “adjacent possible,” where the number of possibilities for combining components expands faster than exponential [00:27:02]. While Game A has a high state of power, Game B focuses on a higher rate of change in its capacity for innovation [00:43:33].

The primary innovation capacity of Game B must be oriented first and foremost towards cultivating individual and collective wisdom and maturity (sovereignty), symmetric with or superior to the power it generates [00:48:55]. This is critical because simply accelerating technological progress without wisdom would lead to faster destruction [00:48:15].

Tangible Aspects of Game B’s Emergence

Pre-B World and Individual Changes

The “pre-B world” involves individuals and groups preparing for the shift. This includes:

• Finding the Others: Connecting with like-minded individuals through online platforms (e.g., Game B Facebook group, GameB on Twitter) and real-world meetups [00:50:29].
• Personal Transformation: Cultivating qualities like courage, optimism, integrity, and honesty [00:51:06]. This also involves developing a “transparent agentic mind” to be aware of one’s own axiomatic assumptions and shift paradigms as context changes [00:52:05].
• Escaping the Matrix: Disengaging from status-oriented consumerism and the manipulation of mass media [00:51:13]. This frees up economic dependence and allows for choices based on genuine meaningfulness rather than external ideologies [00:56:12].
  • Meaningfulness: Defined as the “wholeness of your entire mode of being in the world” [00:58:20], where responses to the world enhance one’s capacity to continue responding well. It’s about figuring out how to live life well, not just for the present but ongoingly [01:00:44].
• Making a Living (Vocation): Orienting one’s work towards their “ikigai” (that which one is uniquely capable of doing with care and capacity, and is drawn towards), which is their calling [01:13:31]. This allows individuals to play their unique role in hyper-collaboration [01:13:58].

Experimenting with Piece Parts (Transition)

Game B’s emergence is not about a sudden, complete transformation but a phased transition involving experimentation and learning [01:08:57].

• Parenting: A Game B approach to parenting views the child as an equal, fully realized soul, with the parent supporting the child’s capacity building rather than imposing knowledge [01:11:00]. It’s a reciprocal relationship where both teach each other about meaningfulness and liminality [01:12:21].
• Conviviality: Literally meaning “living together,” conviviality is the conscious design of culture (including rituals, tools, techniques, and gatherings) to support personal and relational growth [01:15:07]. It emphasizes face-to-face interaction and taking relationships as sacred, realized in the ordinary [01:16:54]. Conviviality is considered a “secret weapon” for Game B, fostering fulfillment over material consumption [01:18:00].
• Sense-making to Action-taking: Moving beyond passive sense-making, Game B emphasizes taking a curious approach to problems, standing in discomfort to gain deeper understanding, and allowing for growth and resolution [01:25:53]. It’s about discerning reality and making choices based on what is truly happening, rather than relying on rigid ideologies or non-judgmentalism [01:34:26].
• Policing and Justice: In Game B, injustice is viewed as a signal to slow down, listen deeply, and enter a liminal space to understand the root causes [01:28:56]. The approach prioritizes healing and restoring right relationships based on love and conviviality, setting boundaries from a place of maturity and care (being “the mountain”) [01:31:11]. This aims to build anti-fragile systems that become stronger through addressing conflict [01:32:00].
• Coherence: Coherence in Game B refers to the synergistic relationship between distinct parts that creates an emergent whole, where the whole simultaneously enhances the autonomy of the parts [01:38:00]. This “coherent pluralism” allows for massive specialization and division of labor while maintaining the integrity of the group [01:40:53].

Massively Exceeding the Dunbar Number

A major challenge for Game B is to scale these principles beyond the Dunbar number (approximately 150 individuals, the cognitive limit for stable social relationships in face-to-face communities) [01:42:04]. This requires developing “meta-learning” – the ability to experiment extremely effectively and improve the experimental protocol itself, accelerating the rate of learning [01:48:01].

Proto-B Communities

The emergence of Game B will likely involve “proto-B” communities that are integrated ways of life, initially dependent on and “parasitizing” Game A for resources like computer chips, hospitals, or schools [01:50:04]. These early proto-B communities will focus on generating highly disruptive economic innovations (like those from the creative class or blockchain) that can compete in Game A and funnel resources back into Game B [01:53:50].

Proto-B communities are expected to be:

• Geographically anchored: Emphasizing embodied, face-to-face relationships, though episodic physical meetups can maintain virtual collaboration [01:56:08].
• Inter-group collaboration: Different proto-B groups can collaborate virtually, leveraging their local conviviality for broader synergy [01:57:47].
• Adaptive and Evolutionary: Multiple proto-B communities will likely emerge, each with different approaches, and failures are expected and necessary for learning and building collective wisdom (“honorable failure”) [01:59:29].