MetaGame

* Book: MetaGame, by Sam Landstrom.

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Summary

A review from Alberto Cottica, EconSF:

"It describes a world rebuilt on a more or less clean slate after a pandemic wiped out most of the population. As a new starting point, Landstrom has chosen Mihaly Cskiszentmihalyi 1’s idea of Flow. Since Flow is achieved in play, it follows that a total gamification of the economy leads to the maximally efficient outcome. For example, a minor character works (or rather “plays”) as an operator of small robots who clean public spaces such as tunnels and hallways. To him, he is playing a game (itself a part of the economy-wide Game), where he earns points for clean surfaces, but he has to spend points to rent the robots. Points are used as the system’s currency. In a sense, this is a Coaseian 1 world where hierarchies have no reason to exist, because the Game brokers between players’ supply and demand schedules. On the other hand, he does imagine s form of collective production unit: the Great Houses, large families with thousands of members, that have replaced corporations. The author explains they grew out of civil unions, after some activists successfully fought for the right to have civil unions between more than two people."

(https://edgeryders.eu/t/econ-sf-a-selection-of-works-and-authors/8582)