The system is a loot-seeking machine.
Once a proto-B becomes large enough to be noticed, it enters the danger zone. It becomes a threat to be crushed or, more likely, a resource to be co-opted. In my latest conversation with Jim, we explored the kinetic and memetic power imbalances at this threshold. We asked the question: how do we navigate the transition without being hijacked by the very structures we are trying to replace?
The Shield of Strict Legality
The first move is counter-intuitive: Strict Legality. Jim argues that under the rule of law, we must not give the authorities a stick to beat us with. The hippies of the 1960s failed because they provided Game A with a legal pretext for their own destruction. To exit the multipolar trap, we must practice jurisdiction shopping: finding the “nooks and crannies” in the legal operating system where rams-earth houses and compost toilets are not just dreams, but legal realities.
By committing to the law, we buy time. We use the existing mechanisms of democracy to leverage local power, turning a small community of two hundred into a decisive political force.
Membrionics and Cultural Power
We cannot do this as isolated islands. We need Meta-membranes.
We require coordination structures that concentrate our political and economic power without falling into the divisive partisan traps of Team Red or Team Blue. This is the infrastructure of the new civilization: a stack of interpenetrating membranes that protect our communication and our capital.
But the strongest shield is not kinetic; it is cultural. When we reach the point where the general public sees Game B as a transparent, unself-serving sanctuary for human flourishing, we achieve a cultural win that no dominator hierarchy can easily suppress.
The Great Filter: Internal Schismogenesis
The greatest threat, however, is not external. It is the Great Filter of Schismogenesis.
Jim and I looked back at the early fissions of Game B: the moments where smart, good-hearted people were torn apart by minor differences in perspective. This is the internal hijack. To counter it, we must adopt the role of the Fair Witness: a neutral, independent observer who surfaces the undercurrents before they turn into personal grudges.
Whether we use high-dimensional human intuition or the analytical power of LLMs as neutral analyzers, we must build an immune system that keeps “Dark Triad” personalities away from the levers of power.
We are not just building houses. We are building the social technology required to survive the shift.
