From this event: https://www.sciencefestival.co.uk/event-details/why-we-play More on www.theplayethic.com

1. WHY WE PLAY
& HOW IT CAN BRING ABOUT
THE GOOD SOCIETY
PAT KANE, THEPLAYETHIC.COM

2. Lecture plan
■ Videos
■ Play as the deep and evolved foundation of creativity
■ The societal "grounds of play"
■ The playground has (planetary) limits
■ We radical animals

3. Play makes society possible

4. Play makes us resourceful and smart

5. Play is the seat of creativity & innovation 1

6. Play is the seat of creativity & innovation 2

7. Play is the seat of creativity & innovation 3

8. Lecture plan
■ Videos
■ Play as the deep and evolved foundation of creativity
■ The societal "grounds of play"
■ The playground has (planetary) limits
■ We radical animals

9. Play as the deep and evolved foundation of
creativity: primary emotions
Antonio Damasio (plus Trust/Anticipation, Ekman)
•Adequate nutrition, air, water and shelter from the elements
•Safety and security
•Emotional connection
•Fun, friendship and intimacy
•A sense of belonging to a wider community
•A measure of control and autonomy
•Attention (to give and receive)
•Status in life (which comes from having stretched ourselves
and achieved things)
•Meaning and purpose
The
”Human
Givens”
Model
- see Tyrell
and
Griffin

10. Play as the deep and evolved foundation
of creativity
Jaak Panksepp
- ”Archaeology
of Mind”
- Opiates,
areas
stimulated –
produce
same effects
in the
mammal
brain

11. Play as the deep and evolved foundation
of creativity
Bateson and Martin:
- Play is “fun” – spontaneous and
intrinsically rewarding
- Players are protected from normal
consequences of serious behaviour
- Play generates novelty (role play, new
combinations
- Play looks different to normal behaviour
- Play indicates well-being (only happens
when organism is free from illness or
stress)

12. Play as the deep and evolved foundation
of creativity
Bateson and Martin:
Identify playful play & playfulness as the
mood state that’s most optimum for
creativity (some play can of course slide into
aggression, powergames)
Mood state: cheerful, frisky, frolicsome,
good-natured, joyous, merry, rollicking
spirited, sprightly and vivacious…

13. Play as the deep and evolved foundation
of creativity
Bateson and Martin:
Playful play contributes most to creativity –
creativity defined as the generation of novel
actions and ideas, by recombining elements
in new ways, or apply them to to new
situations.
NOT the same as innovation – which
winnows out new ideas, and takes on the
hard work of successfully implementing and
spreading them, in orgs or society.

14. Play as the deep and evolved foundation of
creativity
PLAY/CREATIVITY/JOY IS
BEGINNING TO FIND ITS
SECURE PLACE IN THE
SOLIDIFYING MAPS OF EVOLVED
HUMAN NATURE AND
BEHAVIOUR (FROM AFFECTIVE
NEUROSCIENCE & OTHER
AREAS)
WE NEED TO PLAY AND CREATE
– OTHERWISE, WE DENY OUR
BASIC EMOTIONAL NEEDS

15. Play as the deep and evolved foundation of
creativity (Nudge is not enough…)
“Think of Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame as
someone whose Reflective System is always in
control … In contrast, Homer Simpson seems
to have forgotten where he put his Reflective
System” (driven by his “instinctive Automatic
System”) [from Nudge, Thaler/Sunstein]
…whereas Lisa – imaginative, idealistic,
enthusiastic, expressive, - engages her
WHOLE system, through play/art/activism

16. Lecture plan
■ Videos
■ Play as the deep and evolved foundation of creativity
■ The societal "grounds of play"
■ The playground has (planetary) limits
■ We radical animals

17. The societal "grounds of play"
What kind of society does the
findings of affective neuroscience,
or neuroscience-informed
psychotherapy and psychology,
suggest?
One in which primary, evolved
emotions and drives are given their
rich and complex due…
...which is different from them being
manipulated (truth doesn’t come
into it)

18. The societal "grounds of play"
You can’t answer the play-drive in
isolation (with Arts! Free time! Basic
income!)
-- And expect it to redress and fix
maltreatment of the rest of the drives…
Panksepp’s (crude) model of primary
drives is still a symphony– care but also
rage, panic/fear but also seeking/lust..
“Out of the crooked timber of humanity,
no straight thing was ever made” (Kant)

19. The societal "grounds of play"
But if we give all the
other drives their
evolutionary due,
then we must value
play for what it is---
-—Which is a zone of
time and space,
where we can lightly
handle and toy with
the heavy
imperatives of
human existence…
....In order to refine our responses better, or seek out
new niches when current options have closed down.
What are these “play zones”? Or “grounds of play”?

20. The societal "grounds of play"
VALUE THE ONES WE KNOW:
• Education at all levels, 3-to-7 play-
based kindergarten
• An open web supporting mass self-
expression
• Festivals and carnivals – zones and
grounds (like this one!) where
people come together to enjoy
boundaries blurring, challenges
• The arts and cultural sectors and
their subsidies
• Primary science – Andre Geim,
Hawking, etc – and its subsidy

21. The societal "grounds of play"
CREATE NEW PLAYZONES:
• Argue for an open, common,
expressive dimension in every new
tech platform – particularly in AR and
VR
• Playzones alongside Carezones – what
new combinations of security and risk
can we imagine in society? In welfare,
housing, making/enterprise?
• How could our vast archive of creative
techniques be brought to bear on our
broken politics? New forms of
democracy/parties?

22. Lecture plan
■ Videos
■ Play as the deep and evolved foundation of creativity
■ The societal "grounds of play"
■ The playground has (planetary) limits
■ We radical animals

23. The playground has (planetary) limits
Can we make better choices with our innate ingenuity, love of novelty,
colour and form, endlessly ramifying appetites, vast systemic capacity…?

24. PLAY-ETHICS IN A WORLD OF ECOLOGICAL CRISIS ARE NOT EASY.... TAKE
STUART BRAND
IN 60'S/70's BRAND EASILY FUSED
DEVELOPMENTAL, HEALTHY,
NATURAL PLAY (MERRY
PRANKSTERS, NEW GAMES
MOVEMENT, COMMUNAL LIVING)...
....WITH TECHNOLOGICAL,
ABSTRACT, UNNATURAL PLAY
(COMPUTERS & NETS,
ARCHITECTURE/URBANISM, ALT.
ENERGY, BUSINESS CONSULTANCY)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTAuLsJDyWI
LSD?
The playground has (planetary) limits

25. STUART BRAND
1968 WHOLE EARTH CATALOG:
“WE ARE AS GODS AND WE
MIGHT AS WELL GET GOOD AT
IT”
(DIY, SMALL-IS-BEAUTIFUL, SOFT
TECHNOLOGY)
2009 WHOLE EARTH
DISCIPLINE: “WE ARE AS
GODS AND WE MUST GET
GOOD AT IT”
(NUCLEAR POWER, GENE-
TECH, TERRA-FORMING)
IS HE NOW RIGHT? WRONG?
BUT RECONCILING NATURAL AND UNNATURAL PLAY OF HUMANITY IS VERY
DIFFICULT...
NATURAL AND UNNATURAL PLAY COME
TOGETHER IN ONE SLOGAN...

26. 'Human activities increasingly dominate 9 crucial planetary systems. Add to the familiar ones---
climate, biodiversity, and chemical pollution---atmospheric aerosols, ocean acidification, excess
nitrogen in agriculture, too much land in agriculture, freshwater scarcity, and ozone depletion. To
have "a safe operating space for humanity" on Earth requires adjusting our behavior to work within
those systems. How we collectively step up to that responsibility will determine whether "the
Anthropocene" (the current geological era shaped by humans) will be a tragedy or humanity's
greatest accomplishment.”
… BUT LYNAS' INNOVATION PLAYGROUND IS SECURED BY PRO-NUKES, PRO-GEO-
ENGINEERING, PRO-”PROSPERITY”-AS-MATERIAL-ACCUMULATION
HEROIC, “RATIONALIST”, INDIVIDUALIST, GREEN-BAITING DISCOURSE
The playground has (planetary) limits

27. BELIEVES THAT WITH OUR WEB AND
“NOOSPHERE” OF INFORMATION-PLUS-
COMMUNITY-PARTICIPATION, WE HAVE
THE POSSIBILITY OF “GIVING GAIA ITS
MOMENT OF META-AWARE SELF-
CONSCIOUSNESS” - OF BEING GAIAS
BRAIN...
BUT FLANNERY IS POST-INDIVIDUALIST –
WE ARE “GREEDY APES”, TOO WEAK TO BE
HUNTER-GATHERERS, NEEDING OUR
SOCIAL CODES (AND DIVISIONS OF
LABOUR) TO GET ANYTHING WORTHWHILE
DONE – JUMPED-UP SUPERORGANISMS
WHO HAVE TO ATTAIN A MODICUM OF
PLANETARY ETHICS...
The playground has (planetary) limits

28. Lecture plan
■ Videos
■ Play as the deep and evolved foundation of creativity
■ The societal "grounds of play"
■ The playground has (planetary) limits
■ We radical animals

29. We “radical animals”
Even Harari’s view of all life driven by
algorithms, where machine intelligence
outstrips our own…
...stumbles at the door of consciousness.
“My test for whether something is real: Does
it suffer?”
Yet we are also the animal that can percieive
our own limitations – and then play with
those limits...

30. We “radical animals”
It might be fruitful to explore the
crossover between:
Play – a zone for safely exploring all
possibilities
Mindfulness/non-reactivity – a way
to use consciousness to observe our
evolved mechanisms
Though someone might have gotten
there first…

31. Question:
How does play, creativity and
innovation relate? Where does
spontaneity end, and control
begin?

32. Question:
If we understood the evolutionary
role of play better, how might we
change our societies, economies
and ourselves?

33. Question:
How radical can play be? If play
means ALL possibilities can be
lightly considered, what horrors
as well as delights may ensue?

34. WHY WE PLAY
& HOW IT CAN BRING ABOUT
THE GOOD SOCIETY
PAT KANE, THEPLAYETHIC.COM