Fyeah. This is exciting to plug into. One of the ways I've been thinking about this for... jeez, 4 years now... is that you can consider those who are seriously orienting towards Game B, metamodern, integral, developmental, liminal ways of being, etc, and kind of draw a line around them, and say "consider this as an economy, that trades with the rest of the global economy. what are its imports? what are its exports? what does it generate and consume internally/domestically?" And as you note, a lot of its exports at the moment are content and events for other interested people, or research projects that donors pay for. In other words, it kind of depends on a nearby outer circle that is still making its money in other ways.
And that's not a problem...! But at some point, in order to actually expand this economy majorly, it has to start making more material things—opening restaurants, grocery stores, building buildings, etc. Or making things like software or new kinds of devices that can be sold at scale. And these companies could be DDOs (deliberately developmental organizations, Kegan's term) where people are learning how to live in these new emerging worlds while also waiting tables. Delancey Street Foundation in SF is a tiny case study of that as well, from a very different angle. Grocery co-ops sometimes have a bit of this element. And suppose there was a Game-B Grocery (plz dont call it that) thriving in a neighborhood: now the mere economic pressures of people getting fed, both inside and outside this virtual "economy" defined by those willing the new cultures into existence, are fueling this emergence.
I've also had an adjacent vision that involves networks or an odd holding company where people are fluidly moving between working on different projects on independent teams, depending on where their unique skillsets are most needed, and the smoothness of this collaboration is facilitated by the full-spectrum cultural tech. Here's are two articulations of that vision: adjacent possible (https://malcolmocean.com/2022/05/illustration-of-adjacent-possible-meta-team-vision/) and 10-15 years out (https://malcolmocean.com/2022/05/100x-vision/)
One thing that bodes well for our current time is that it used to be that in order to amass wealth (especially without working full-time) you had to have a ton of employees basically, which could be generative but was often exploitative. But now, and increasingly, a remarkable amount of excess wealth can be generated by an individual leveraging software they've written, to scale some shape that they want to offer into the world. I'm an example of this archetype not named in your list: I export the purposeful-improvisation to-do list app https://intend.do from the liminal economy into the wider one, and this funds my being able to work on obscure research into trust and collective perception. I'm a bit stuck on scaling it enough that I have enough wealth to breath easy and have some influence, not just enough-to-get-by. But it might be possible for this business to be 3× or 10× or 30× the size, with a bit of strategic maneuvering.
I worked for ten years at a Benedictine Monastery in the Development office. I managed the donor database, did donor research (snooping using database subscriptions that aggregated public records including non-profit donations. I also did research and provided financial data for fundraising feasibility studies for million dollar capital campaigns.
...and, drum roll.... I'm in the other category known as, "retired."
But, to your point, Layman, gathering the human resources is a daunting enough task, deciding and agreeing on a course of effective action, without the survival incentive that enclosed communities have, might require just the right style of genius. Maybe you have a plan?
Interesting background. Thanks for sharing that. Yes, it is a daunting task. I don't have all the skills and resources needed but I can at least start banging on this drum and see if it brings the right people forward. I have a couple ideas and know a few promising individuals. We'll see. Making the conversation overt is the first step.
Fyeah. This is exciting to plug into. One of the ways I've been thinking about this for... jeez, 4 years now... is that you can consider those who are seriously orienting towards Game B, metamodern, integral, developmental, liminal ways of being, etc, and kind of draw a line around them, and say "consider this as an economy, that trades with the rest of the global economy. what are its imports? what are its exports? what does it generate and consume internally/domestically?" And as you note, a lot of its exports at the moment are content and events for other interested people, or research projects that donors pay for. In other words, it kind of depends on a nearby outer circle that is still making its money in other ways.
And that's not a problem...! But at some point, in order to actually expand this economy majorly, it has to start making more material things—opening restaurants, grocery stores, building buildings, etc. Or making things like software or new kinds of devices that can be sold at scale. And these companies could be DDOs (deliberately developmental organizations, Kegan's term) where people are learning how to live in these new emerging worlds while also waiting tables. Delancey Street Foundation in SF is a tiny case study of that as well, from a very different angle. Grocery co-ops sometimes have a bit of this element. And suppose there was a Game-B Grocery (plz dont call it that) thriving in a neighborhood: now the mere economic pressures of people getting fed, both inside and outside this virtual "economy" defined by those willing the new cultures into existence, are fueling this emergence.
I've also had an adjacent vision that involves networks or an odd holding company where people are fluidly moving between working on different projects on independent teams, depending on where their unique skillsets are most needed, and the smoothness of this collaboration is facilitated by the full-spectrum cultural tech. Here's are two articulations of that vision: adjacent possible (https://malcolmocean.com/2022/05/illustration-of-adjacent-possible-meta-team-vision/) and 10-15 years out (https://malcolmocean.com/2022/05/100x-vision/)
One thing that bodes well for our current time is that it used to be that in order to amass wealth (especially without working full-time) you had to have a ton of employees basically, which could be generative but was often exploitative. But now, and increasingly, a remarkable amount of excess wealth can be generated by an individual leveraging software they've written, to scale some shape that they want to offer into the world. I'm an example of this archetype not named in your list: I export the purposeful-improvisation to-do list app https://intend.do from the liminal economy into the wider one, and this funds my being able to work on obscure research into trust and collective perception. I'm a bit stuck on scaling it enough that I have enough wealth to breath easy and have some influence, not just enough-to-get-by. But it might be possible for this business to be 3× or 10× or 30× the size, with a bit of strategic maneuvering.
There are some important elements in this. We should chat outside of Substack.
I worked for ten years at a Benedictine Monastery in the Development office. I managed the donor database, did donor research (snooping using database subscriptions that aggregated public records including non-profit donations. I also did research and provided financial data for fundraising feasibility studies for million dollar capital campaigns.
...and, drum roll.... I'm in the other category known as, "retired."
But, to your point, Layman, gathering the human resources is a daunting enough task, deciding and agreeing on a course of effective action, without the survival incentive that enclosed communities have, might require just the right style of genius. Maybe you have a plan?
Interesting background. Thanks for sharing that. Yes, it is a daunting task. I don't have all the skills and resources needed but I can at least start banging on this drum and see if it brings the right people forward. I have a couple ideas and know a few promising individuals. We'll see. Making the conversation overt is the first step.