Societal Reimagination: A Kind of Homecoming
In a network, just beyond the corner, a glimpse of what lies ahead.
Embracing your next step, you will find yourself on a different journey.
The core metaphor, the function at the heart of things in Conversations that Mind and Matter, turned place, is
Way Station
“They told me they were headed for a planet the name of which I had not heard before, and they talked among themselves, gaily and happily, but in such a way that I did not seem to be left out. From their talk I gained the fact that some form of art was being presented at the festival on this planet. The art form was not alone of music or painting, but was composed of sound and color and emotion and form and other qualities for which there seem to be no words in the language of the Earth, and which I do not entirely recognize, only gaining the very faintest inkling of what they were talking of in this particular regard. I gained the impression of a three-dimensional symphony, although this is not entirely the right expression, which had been composed, not by a single being, but by a team of beings. They talked of the art form enthusiastically and I seemed to understand that it would last for not only several hours, but for days, and that it was an experience rather than a listening or seeing and that the spectators or audience did not merely sit and listen, but could, if they wished, and must, to get the most out of it, be participants.”
― Clifford D. Simak, Way Station
People turned magical
Most people still secretly believe in magic. This is not an altogether bad thing. It means, imagination is alive and well, and we can dream new experiences into existence and share new stories with others. It also means, that’s where they believe they are — and that’s a good place as any, for our joint departure.
Our Relevant Next
In a network, community is the answer to 7k slightly different, generative and regenerative questions.
Community is a worthwhile dilemma. Cue Oblique Strategies.
Community is one of the things we need to rekindle, in an individual, small group genius and social collective intelligence sense. Cue Adjacent Strategies.
Card: Preferable
make what’s perfect
more preferable
The Adjacent Strategies Card Deck works similar to the Oblique Strategies deck.
What Oblique is to a lateral movement, Adjacent is to a relevant next.
Combining both just so, and you’ll get knowledge.
Knowledge scaffolding (comments, annotations) and knowledge spiraling (conversations, metalogue).
Knowledge: Scaffolding and Spiraling
Moves, Arcs, Circles, Cycles, Spirals, Spheroid Spirals and Hopf Fibrations
One Thing, Leading Another
- Build a portal
- Share the location and purpose of the portal
- Tell the participants, what they need to leave behind, what gear they need to bring and what glimpses of the beyond they will experience
- When a group of participants have gathered right next to the portal, go through together what will open the portal and, after the magic experienced and the pot of gold found, what will grant them a reasonably safe passage back
- Embark. Only in darkness, light. Novel, the clearing once through the forest.
Roadside Picnic
“A picnic. Picture a forest, a country road, a meadow. Cars drive off the country road into the meadow, a group of young people get out carrying bottles, baskets of food, transistor radios, and cameras. They light fires, pitch tents, turn on the music. In the morning they leave.”
— Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic
The Secret, Hidden in Plain Sight, in a Clearing in the Forest, in the Muddling Through Middle of Things
“You will find this love you miss.”
— The Police, Secret Journey
A Neverending Return: Sagarmatha Café, and on…
Play^n -> Game^n -> Win^n
Provide means for a safe return. Offer your services: a shared space, a space turned place through sharing stories among returnees, an ongoing, shared, participatory inquiry.
For the Benefit of Others
The mix of participants, their shared experience, their mixtapes and shared stories, the coming and going on different journeys, the Ichigo Ichie and serendipituous encounters — of benefit to seasoned participants and new, future ones alike.
Provisional Soundtrack
Richard Wolitz and Jason Martineau
