Conceived by Buckminster Fuller as an alternative to war games, The World Game embodies a new way of looking at the world. It looks at the whole, global condition of life support (the natural resources we depend upon to survive) and the interrelated nature of humanity’s problems. It recognizes that the physical well-being of everyone is necessary for our continued survival. It also sees that we now, today, have the resources ad technical, economic, ethical, and cultural know-how to meet the needs of all of humanity while regenerating the planet’s ecosystems or all of life on Earth.

The Game

Game Board

The Earth is the game board (represented by one or more maps).

Players

Any person concerned with life on Earth and interested in developing new alternatives and opportunities for humanity can play. The World Game is not associated with any political ideology or system.

Game Objectives

Each player’s objective in the game is to make the world work for 100% of humanity and to design human life-support systems in such a way that everyone on Earth is taken care of at a higher standard of living than everyone now enjoys. The players must develop new options for humanity – eliminate scarcity, poverty, war, and all threats to human well-being and evolution – and nurture global peace and security.

Game Pieces

All of earth's technologies and pieces.

Strategies

In the World Game, players compete to improve their mutual advantage. Self-interest is understood to be Collective-interest because the world’s environment and resources are shared by all.

Winning

Best moves demonstrate how, when implemented would: (1) Make the world work, (2) for the most people, (3) using the least amount of resources, (4) with the least environmental impact, (5) in the quickest amount of time, (6) in an ecologically, economically and sustainable way, (7) with the most degrees of freedom or alternatives to humanity and the individual.

Rules

Each Strategy should show how it would:

1. Solve a critical problem facing humanity, that if left unattended, could cause harm to human beings or to our vital life support; provide an abundance of life support for humanity where now there is scarcity.

2. Do more with less; that is, design life-support systems that perform more functions with fewer materials, energy, and time.

3. Respect and protect the living systems which make up the game board.

4. Respect, protect, and foster the diversity of human beings on Earth.

5. Recognize the planet as the context for problem-solving, not the continent, nation-state, or region; the Whole Earth contains the problem, not the locality; problem-solving begins with the whole system and moves toward the local system, not vice versa.

6. Convert weaponry to life support (or livingry): political dogma, nation-state self-interest at the expense of the rest of the planet, and warfare are obsolete. Any resort to armed conflict immediately disqualifies players; individual interests can be best furthered through global growth: the top “haves” are not pulled down as in all previous revolutions, rather, the whole system, including the bottom have-nots are elevated.

7. Maximize human free time and minimize human coerced time.

8. Maximize the possibilities for humans to participate in making decisions that will affect their future; the more people engaged in thinking out solutions, the greater will be humanity’s collective wealth; parameters defining success are open to definition and redefinition by as many people as possible.

9. Foster cooperation rather than competition; nation-state competition is transcended through cooperative global endeavors; the perceived conflicts between the world’s rich and poor, developed and developing region, North and South, socialist and capitalist economic systems, technology and nature and the environment and economics are bridged.

10. Use existing technology and know-how; hypothetical or projected technology is left in the realm of fiction.

11. Cost less in the long term to be carried out than to allow the world system to go on in its present way, leading to possible eventual total collapse or significant hardship and suffering.

12. Be sustainable, safe, dependable, appropriate, flexible, and open.

References:

Context:

• This concept was shared with me by my friends at the Design Science Studio

Tags: #index