The late Douglas Engelbart [1] had a vision, one in which humans and their tools (IT) co-evolve (which really isn't happening the way it should) in order to imp

The late Douglas Engelbart [1] had a vision, one in which humans and their tools (IT) co-evolve (which really isn't happening the way it should) in order to improve overall capabilities in facing ever more complex and urgent problems. There are many projects ongoing today which exist in the space created by that vision, but they are all fighting for scarce resources, so they tend to compete rather than collaborate. Some of those projects are mounted by wealthy high-tech entities, many of which do not understand that their own business models are a part of the emerging and urgent problem space. In my view, there is a profound need to reshape the overall landscape. In doing so, there is an enormous need to find ways to tame human conversation, get people talking - and listening - again. I would be (I am) as deeply engaged in being a member of the possibly enormous entity which takes on taming conversation. There is no way to "reduce" the world's grand issues down to one solution; still, you need to start somewhere. Finding ways to change the narrative seems critical - at least, to me. I did not wait for money being no object - that's a grand fantasy - but a few friends and I chose to enter the Engelbartian space by melding game mechanics, guild social dynamics, and epic quests with human conversations about matters that matter. Our work is open source. Any business models which grow up in that space cannot be more of what we have today; exploring financially sustainable business models without exploiting human dignity and privacy remains a crucial aspect of our work. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart