How to Play the Infinite Game (Part 2)
In this article, I detailed some of the differences between the finite game and the infinite game, the main takeaways being finite players play to win within boundaries and their prize is life, thus they are not fully alive during play. Infinite players have one main task: keep the game alive. This brings us to the aspect of power.
Power for Finite & Infinite Games
In finite power, or as it is conventionally known, is the ability to displace an object within a given spatial and temporal frame. These spatial and temporal limits are boundaries that are only apparent when one has hit this boundary, or in other words, when the game has ended. It is when it is over that we know who the powerful one was and tis power is only derived form the others admitting to your power. Power is theatre as it is for an audience.
What about infinite games?
Power for the finite player is in the past. When the game has been maxed out that we know who this powerful player was, for the infinitely minded, the game has no temporal elements, thus power is irrelevant. Infinite players use the past to in the present, act as to compel others to act.
We can think of infinite players as in a network and finite players in a hierarchy. In terms of network theory, infinite players have no one on top but the nodes (players), seek as many edges (links to other players) as to connect and send an impulse for action to the other nodes. Finite games seek to use power and ensure all edges connect to this one player — hierarchies are networks too. Power in an infinite game is similar to an energy grid; if it is built in a hierarchical fashion, then if the top node is cut from the others, the network collapses, the game finishes. Infinite players thus think in terms of resiliency: the more players are connected and thus influence each other, if a player is to be cut from the network, then the game continues.
Their resilience is strength: they are prepared for what will happen. Power for the finite player rests on who has displaced players in the past. They are wholly unprepared for the future.
Power & Evil
There’s an interesting note related to evil, the unbounded and unrestrained power. Evil destroys the infinite game. In the finite game, evil can arise because it is a strict and unmalleable interpretation of the past. It seeks to remove all nuances of history so that it culminates into one history, a strife of one over the other with one inhibiting the other to win. One can look at dictatorships throughout history or empires and their persecutions of certain peoples. They were finite and their sense of history completely wrong.
