Europe 2

Nicholas Robinson BCPE IEEE 1

Europe 2.0: Hive Mind Financial Ecosystems

Supply-side financial reform as a driver for change

Hive Mind Financial Ecosystem(s)

All was going well until out of the blue..

• The bees all swarmed, downed tools and left the nest!• Financial systems can also be thought of as unstable systems if pushed

beyond certain limits of stability.• The hive mind can be a collective or swarm intelligence that insects use to

perform more complex tasks by grouping together!• We humans used to rely on our group or swarm behaviour as well as our own

gut reactions when exchange trading• However it is argued that we are now far better connected and informed as

individuals than our predecessors, and, are capable of operating autonomously using the networked information we each and all have at hand

• We don’t need swarm behaviour to operate now – we have the technology!• Swarming (like war and recession) based on rumour and misinformation is

damaging and wasteful!

Aims and Objectives• In a nutshell, hive mind ecosystems are a proposal to re-embed finance more

directly into the physical economy through virtualisation gaming and simulation, where objects become ‘sticky capital’.

• In the past – capital and finance have comprised a series of innovations that create and distribute wealth increasingly as we will see by deconstructing finance into its’ history

• sticky capital referred to investment in libraries, hospitals and universities both as places (bricks and mortar) repositories (knowledge and resources) and as services (people and skills)

• Could “Constructivism” be the answer?• We will explore some games from ‘bottom up’, ‘top down’ to include commercial

and civic planning and ask: could capital be more readily attracted into invest in such and regenerate our economies?

• Could re-inventing our cities and industries in cyberspace create a new wave of investment for the benefit and inclusion of the many as well as the few?

• Swarming is wasteful!

The Hive Mind

What is Finance?

• A series of innovations to improve the usability of exchange trading– a means of ensuring each party gets what they

want – eliminates bartering

• A means of speeding up exchange and trade– Increases the number of trades in a given time– creates records– creates a surplus

What is Money?

What is Money?

• A medium for rapid exchange of goods• Historically Gold and Silver• Improves usability of trade (speed, frequency)• The ‘Alchemy’ of turning Gold into paper!• A leap of faith• A promissory note• The root of all evil?

The Bank promises to pay the bearer on demand ..

Belief in Money

• Belief in Society!• Definitions of Economics– as a social science ..– as a means of trade, production and consumption

of goods ..– Look for the signature of the European Central

Bank Trustee on your Euro notes

Belief in Finance

• As Edward Robinson (2014) has shown....• “Our current financial sysems are unsustainable.

Differential wealth accuulation by the few is skewing wealth distribution unfairly and denying access to opportunity, investment and employment for the many. Resources need to be re-invested more fairly into longer-term economic growth rather than shorter-term financial profit-takinng based on trend analysis of traded commodities.” (Giddens, 1984, p. 33).

Workshop - 1• Group 1Read Me First! Euro Truck Simulator 2 introduction

featuring single-user operation with “AI traffic”.Euro Truck Simulator 2 featuring single user, with

spoken commentary, with GPS, ‘bottom-up’ freelance driver with tractor operation and discovery-led load-processing – think here of the game within the game as goods and as embedded transaction processing

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMeVfdPmfOQ• http://www.twitch.tv/snuslepp

Workshop - 2• [deutsch] Minecraft pvp mit euch auf twitch• http://www.twitch.tv/thebietz• • [English] Sims4 multi-player• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9SpVdNLreA• • SimCity twitch multi-user• http://www.twitch.tv/simcity/c/3389127• • Sims: new job and pregnant!• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2zE8lPR52c•

Workshop – 3

• SimCity Telephone City twitch• http://www.twitch.tv/simcity/b/486885138• • Building (constructing) cities of tomorrow• SimCity strategy argued – green or industrial?• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YceL2C4TW4Q• SimCity cities of tomorrow extn. pack intro green or

industrial? ***• https://www.youtube.com/user/SimCityEA