SHALL WE PLAY A GAME? (pt.1 of 3)

Welcome to the Zero State (ZS). ZS is an activist community, part of the Social Futurist movement, and – depending on who you ask – it may or may not be a game. Just because something is a game, that does not mean it doesn’t have very real consequences. In any case, ZS wants you to join the fun. Who knows, perhaps you are already playing the game.

ZS tells a story

In the ZS mythos-narrative, acceleration of technological development and societal trends comes to a spectacular and rather unforgiving head somewhere around the middle of the 21st Century (C21). Some people make it. Many don’t. The “Zero State” is one of around a dozen societies left standing after the dust settles, later in the Century.

The punchline is that the societies left standing at the end of the Century bear little or no resemblance to the nations we know today, and about the only thing they all have in common is the fact that they survived by embracing some combination of high technology and efficient communal organization. Hyper-Individualism and Neo-Luddism turned out to be self-imposed death sentences, over the medium term (in other words, in an apocalyptic scenario going it alone or eschewing technology are very poor choices). Most of the cherished beliefs held by modern humans around the year 12020 had, within three decades, become every bit as obsolete as witch burnings, the Whig party, or wax cylinder recordings.

Now, for the twist: Several of these late-C21 societies, ZS included, have developed technologies which appear to manipulate the past. Whether these technologies represent bona fide time-travel, some kind of quantum physics parlour trick, or massive computational simulation of the Old World, inevitably they are used as tools in the continuing struggle for survival. As people (apparently) living in the early years of C21 come to believe they are agents of these future societies, ensnared in complex machinations to support one faction or other, one outcome or other, there is no clear way to be sure what is really true. So, we must ask:

Is this belief a delusion, some form of insanity?

If not, is it actually time travel, or some other technological trick?

Even if the whole thing is just a simulation or game, how would you distinguish between one game with serious consequences, and another which is just trivial entertainment?

If you are the kind of person who questions reality and their role in it, then the breadcrumbs below and in parts 2 & 3 of this article may interest you. If you are the kind of person who never thinks to ask such questions that’s fine, of course… just know that the world may not be as it seems, and there may be consequences to that, even if right now you think you don’t care. Who knows… one day, you might.

Following breadcrumb trails, down Rabbit Holes…

1. Come Together, Over Me: Blackstar Philosophy

The Blackstar (★) is a symbol of Technological Singularity, and of our Transhumanist Philosophy. As such, it represents the complete rebirth of ourselves, humanity, society, and the world, through ethically principled technology.

As a civilization-goal-ideal, this idea speaks to a broader memeplex including the power to rationally integrate multiple principles under one unifying ideal, to govern in strict accord with those principles, to work toward a collective identity as a people, to promote liberation from the constraints of the past, and renewal of the human civilization which emerged from various “cradles” across the Eurasian continent over the last several thousand years.

  • Most broadly speaking, this Blackstar Philosophy (which can also be denoted by the Greek letter Phi – Φ – in place of the Blackstar) begins with the core tenets of Cartesian Skepticism and Platonic Idealism.
  • From there, the rejection of imbalance, of Spectacle, and of governance-by-Dialectic leads to the general adoption of a Radical Centrist stance.
  • Within the broad space of possible Radical Centrist positions, we are Social Futurists. Not all Radical Centrists are Social Futurists, but all Social Futurists are Radical Centrists.
  • Finally, the Zero State is a prominent community and game within the space of potential Social Futurisms.

For more Breadcrumbs & Rabbit Holes see Part 2 of this article.