In 1987, theologian James Carse wrote a short book called Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility. In it, he described most of human history as consisting of finite games, i.e., discrete contests with clear winners and losers. These would include war and conquest, but also transactional business, sexual negotiations, and national politics. Anything with a one up/one down outcome. According to Carse, there was another game, the Infinite Game—which, instead of having winners and losers, creates conditions where the purpose isn’t to end the game victorious. The purpose
...more
