Kisangani 2150: Homo Ludens Rising

I've posted a new working paper. Title above, links, abstract, contents, and introduction below.

Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/128483421/Kisangani_2150_Homo_Ludens_Rising_A_Working_Paper
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/390272509_Kisangani_2150_Homo_Ludens_Rising
SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5197282

Abstract: The advancement of AI offers us the choice between contrasting paradigms for organizing human life: Homo Economicus (where work is the defining activity) and Homo Ludens (where play is the defining activity). Drawing on Johan Huizinga's work and Kim Stanley Robinson’s speculative fiction, I propose that humanity faces a critical juncture as AI increasingly dominates economic production. The document develops a theoretical framework for a “Fourth Arena” of existence—beyond matter, life, and human culture—that emerges through human-AI interaction. Through speculative narrative (first section) and philosophical dialogue with Claude 3.7 (second and third sections), I argue that play, rather than economic utility, will become the defining characteristic of human value and meaning in an automated future. As AI systems assume utilitarian functions, humanity's capacity for non-instrumental play becomes increasingly central to our identity and contribution. The manuscript represents preliminary work toward a larger project titled The Fourth Arena: Homo Ludens Rising, which envisions play as the essential bridge into a post-economic society where human flourishing transcends productivity-based value systems.

Contents

Introduction: Welcome to the Fourth Arena 2
Homo Ludens ushers us into the Fourth Arena 3
Discussion with Claude about digital doppelgangers 10
Discussion with Claude about values, work vs. play 15
For Further Reading 22

Introduction

This document consists of material I’m working on for the closing chapters of a book-in-progress: Welcome to the Fourth Arena: Homo Ludens Rising. The book is based on an article I published in 3 Quarks Daily: Welcome to the Fourth Arena – The World is Gifted. Here’s how that article opens:

The First Arena is that of inanimate matter, which began when the universe did, fourteen billion years ago. About four billion years ago life emerged, the Second Arena. Of course we’re talking about our local region of the universe. For all we know life may have emerged in other regions as well, perhaps even earlier, perhaps more recently. We don’t know. The Third Arena is that of human culture. We have changed the face of the earth, have touched the moon and the planets, and are reaching for the stars. That happened between two and three million years ago, the exact number hardly matters. But most of the cultural activity is little more than 10,000 years old.

The question I am asking: Is there something beyond culture, something just beginning to emerge? If so, what might it be?

After running through the first three Arenas, I go on to ask: I go on to ask: “What kind of beings will arise in the Fourth Arena?” I suggest:

I suppose the obvious proposal is actual real artificial intelligence, or perhaps superintelligence. I don’t think so. That fact that no one really knows what those things might be does not, I suppose, disqualify them as denizens of the Fourth Arena, for I am proposing a future with radically new beings. How could be possibly understand what they might be?

I’m still a bit mystified.

This document is an attempt to deal with that mystification. I’m not going to solve the mystery – for life isn’t a mystery to be solved – but perhaps I can begin transforming it. Transforming – From what? To what? For the sake of argument let’s say I’m transforming it from deep, impenetrable, and unutterable mystery to, shall we say, a tractable mystery, something which we can enter and thereby arrive at new understandings of ourselves and our relationship with the world.

I’ve organized this document has three sections. The first section, “Homo Ludens ushers us into the Fourth Arena to the Fourth Arena,” is a preview of the final chapter in the book. It gives hints about the nature of future technology and about the change in values that will be needed to flourish with that technology. The next two sections of the document say more about those issues. These sections take the form of dialogues I have had with Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonata. The second section, “Discussion with Claude about digital doppelgangers,” is about the kind of technology that I see emerging in the next century while the third section, “Discussion with Claude about values, work vs. play,” is about how we will have to rethink how we live. I plan to devote chapters in the book to each of those subjects.