Last week, I played The Newtonian Shift. It is a game that simulates 25 years of energy transition as part of a 6 hour simulation game. In the energy transition, which plays out differently each time, depending on who is playing, what they value, how they imagine the future. Where each player figures in the energy landscape at the end can be quite different depending on who collaborated, who was marginalized, and by the end, who controls the technology or who can afford to buy supplies of energy on the open market.

Today, in the real world, I’ve learned that a hospital in Puerto Rico is being supported by Tesla to turn to solar in this time of crisis when the hospital — without a proper supply of electricity from the city grid it now has a micro-grid in operation.

I wonder to myself, how each new energy infrastructure project is part of a larger chess game in the control of future energy systems, which if I have it my way, will be commonly owned. The wealth shared equitably.

We shall just have to see what players jump into the game and how they manage to individually profit from the rules of the game, as they currently exist, or who has the wherewithal to shift the rules of the game (as is suggested in The Story of Solutions), toward other futures.

CollaborationCrisisElectricityEnergy TransitionEquityFuture Energy SystemsFuturesGamesGamingGridsHospitalsInfrastructureMarginalizationNewtonian ShiftOpen MarketOwnershipProfitPuerto RicoSimulationSimulation GameTeslaWealth