Poetics of Leadership

Between thoughts on where humanity is heading and how could we possibly lead and guide its course, we played a short round of the Currency Lab game. There were no group introductions, but I find it great to learn about people from the way they describe their currencies and challenges.

One group imagined a currency that came in the form of stickers that people could put on food items at participating stores and those items would then be marked for donation to a food pantry. The other group’s currency also had to do with food and agriculture, and they devised a blockchain used for ethically produced food without unpaid externalities. One group never got to explain their currency idea because they drew a bonus card instead of a challenge.

We used the new version of the game, which has mostly aesthetic changes – now the cards look more like your standard playing cards, rectangular and with round corners. It meant I got to punch lots of round corner “holes” at a lovely cafe in the Lake Distric the day before the conference started.

Intriguingly called “Poetics of Leadership“, the event explored themes like “art and collapse“, “deep adaptation“, and “lifeboat civilizations“. An anonymous quote brought by one presenter, found in a cemetery gravestone, resonated:

“Artists and poets are the raw nerve ends of humanity. By themselves they can do little to save humanity. Without them there would be little worth saving.”