☝️ This essay is also available on the Human Systems notion.
According to Daniel Schmachtenberger, we are at the end of one kind of civilization and must transition to another. If we don’t transition — if we stick with our current civilizational operating system — then we won’t survive an interlocking set of global crises. In Daniel’s terminology, our current civilization (“game A”) will “self-terminate”. The new civilizational setup (“game B”) is yet to be invented. He suggests we invent it by starting from a series of requirements (he calls them “generator functions”) which he has derived from the threats to our survival.
I pretty much agree with this assessment! I love Daniel’s emphasis on redesigning society, rather than on power struggles or mindset shifts. And we both put special emphasis on redesigning institutions like voting and markets (“collective intelligence” is the lingo for this in Daniel’s scene).
But I would amend Daniel’s account in one place: Game B is already here, operating, on Earth. His requirements are already met. We needn’t reinvent civilization from whole cloth — instead, we can study what is already happening.
👉 You should be familiar with Daniel Schmachtenberger’s “Generator Functions” before you read the rest of this. Follow the link above!
