Internet: Stanford Peace Innovation
I’ve just posted a topic at the Facebook group Stanford Peace Innovation, which aims to develop world peace using web 2.0 technologies.
. . . . I had a few thoughts, but I’m unsure if they are appropriate?
It was an axiom of the late Milton H. Erickson that in order to communicate one must meet the other in THEIR model of the world.
Some years ago lecturers from the Faculty of Management in England included a game in one of their trainings in which teams were given an equal number of tokens, but gain more by performing certain tasks, they could also trade. The details of the game escape me now but the game was so devised that teams attempting to accrue tokens simply via their own efforts progressed far more slowly than those who entered into collaborative trade. Indeed simple contracts between teams logarithmically increased the performance of the co-operating teams.
Computer games are, for some, addictive.
Many gamers enjoy war games.
Therefore I wonder would it be possible to create a war-gaming program that:
a) Will not allow any player to be wiped out because the system automatically injects the influence af a third party at critical levels.
b) Is devised so that parties do better via negotiation and diplomacy than an arms race, or war?
c) Only ends when all the players are at peace?
Ideally such a game could be played by multiple users who could be up-dated about critical plays by participants via RSS, or some kind of mobile messaging service similar to Twitter?
The idea of course is that participating in the game slowly converts a war-minded competitive player to wider strategies of conflict resolution. My quibble with the plan is that for it to be effective such a game would be based upon the duplicity that it is a war game, when in fact it is a peace game!
These are just some flights of idea, but since the threads here seem so poorly populated with discussion I figured there was nothing to lose?
Thank you for reading,
BRAY
Facebook members may join this topic, and contribute others at Stanford Peace Innovation.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
BRAY,
Thanks for referencing our peace effort and for contributing to the online discussion. We will be updating our website http://peace.stanford.edu frequently and hope you’ll continue to visit.
BJ Fogg
Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
April 10th, 2008 at 11:55 am
B.J.
You’re very welcome. I am learning much by following both the Peace Project, and also The Psychology of Facebook courses from the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab.
Indeed you have so won me over that today’s post introduces our very own Web 2.0 contribution to education.
BRAY