So if you’ve read the executive summary, you’ve got at least some idea of the shape of the thing I’m building. It’s now time to confront some of the inevitable, predictable reactions head on.

No, PtP isn’t communism. It isn’t socialism, fascism and it’s not capitalism, either. Or any other “ism,” for that matter. (though one could make the argument that this is what capitalism might look like if capitalism valued something other than dollars (or, insert your currency of choice here).

What if, for example, capitalism placed primary value on serving others? On solving problems that impacted the whole of society, rather than focusing on competition and the single-minded pursuit of money? (gotta maximize shareholder value as expressed in USD, after all). If capitalism did those things, then it would have to take on a very different form.

Of course, capitalism doesn’t do those things, so the paragraph above is nothing more than dreamy, idle speculation.

What PtP IS then, is an attempt at making a new thing. An attempt to go off into a new direction.

And this new system can afford to do that because it specifically ISN’T designed to be a primary economic system. It is designed as a bulwark. A fallback. A secondary system that serves as companion to the primary. When people “fall thru the cracks” of the primary system, PtP is what catches them. Unfortunately, under the strain of capitalism pursued by the United States, LOTS of people wind up falling thru the cracks, so PtP will need to be quite robust and capable of almost endless scaling in order to catch them all, but that’s the goal. That’s the idea.

Unfortunately, such a system cannot be built by the current crop of captains of industry. They would twist and corrupt it. They would exploit it. It would wind up being “Capitalism 1.5” with all of the good boiled off.

That’s not going to happen here because of one detail not mentioned in the executive summary.

Whomever builds this thing is going to have to grow it until it reaches critical mass and then….that person is going to have to let it go.

That person is going to have to give it to the community that springs up around it.

I’m old.

I have a bad heart. Bad knees. Bad back. A perforated pancreas, and a host of other life threatening medical conditions. I’m simply not going to be alive long enough to become tempted by the corrupting influences of power and, if my past is a guide, I’m not easily tempted by that sort of thing in any case. It is my intention to do exactly as I described. When PtP is large enough to be supported by the community that grows up around it (ie – when we have a critical mass of demonstrated servant leaders produced by the system), then…the system won’t need me anymore and it will be time to step away and create a brand new, level 0 player account and start playing the game I made.

That’s the goal. That’s what PtP is. And what it isn’t.

EDIT: After Kathleen’s comment I wanted to add more.

Unfortunately, another thing Play the Planet isn’t is a utopic society, though the Holon-centric gamification aspects will have the effect of building solid communities.

We’ll be using real world metrics to measure current rates of things like homelessness and food insecurity, and we’ll track our progress against those metrics. The cool thing about that is this: While there’s no possible way I can solve say, hunger in America, I can solve food insecurity in Russell County VA, where there are only some 4900 food insecure people. That’s a realistic number. That’s a number that I, with the help of the gamers in Russell County, can push to zero.

And if we can do that (we can)…it’ll demonstrate the concept. There’s nothing magical about Russell County va. If it can be done here, then it can be done everywhere. In every county in America and eventually, in every holon, worldwide.

That’s not utopic, IMO…that’s just using gamification to build better communities, using a system that doesn’t prioritize profit maximization, but maybe they’re close enough to the same thing that it won’t matter much. 🙂