main | contents | previous | next
18 FEB 2007
Three people required for any funny transaction
Originally a rule for funny sex, it may apply to any funny business. The third person is required to make sure nothing serious is going on.
12144
12 MAR 2007
Wish list as funny money
Funny money already takes the form of jokes, visions of funny world, and practical networking communications. Our wish list, offers, needs and jobs can also be written on funny money and circulated. We can put a value on each item based on the $100/hr minimum wage in funny world.Funny money would look like barter currency, a good bridge to serious world. Of course it doesn't count until somebody earns it, and then they find out it isn't barter currency because they can't spend it. They've been conned. It's funny money, even says so on its face. It's funny to put out a wish list, so obviously self-serving, and pay for it with bogus currency.
Barter-style funnies deal with reality and doing things for each other. They do much more to set up connections and create community than the story or game funnies. Individuals can create an active currency right away, and start building the funny economy even before establishing parties and game groups.
12170
15 MAR 2007
Ambiguous confusion starts with funny money
Funny money is the first contact with funny world, causing serious people to pay more attention. It's barter, it's a game, it's a chance to win something. They try to fit it into what they know about alternative currencies. If mbf and funny world are only stories they can be dismissed as nonsense. Funny money engages them, and they try to figure out what it is.When they do, the puzzle deepens. No, it's not barter, because the issuers claim no obligation. Funny money is worthless, a con, per its traditional definition. You can't spend it. You're stuck with it. Yet maybe this accumulation is eligible for a prize.
Then there's the confusion between work and play, between giving and receiving, between story, game and reality. There's money you have to earn, and money you pay yourself, and nobody checks. An almost anarchic currency. How can it mean anything? Yet it's claimed to be the measure of salvation and to create a whole world.
12172
15 MAR 2007
Funny money game development
The main rule is make funny money, and it starts out pretty anarchic and abundant, just to encourage people to do it. We'll look for any reason to make funny money, any reason to build the funny economy.That's home base for funny money. We continue as we start, attaching funny money to any wild and crazy idea, since that's where the greatest values come from. Yet our serious minds will insist on linear games that accumulate currency or lead to a prize, and that's OK, providing continuity, growth and sinks for our excess energy.
Funny world is full of ambiguity. True, false and funny (TFF) is the most potent combination. From our serious viewpoint it keeps breaking our games and diverting us from the treasure. But it's a greater treasure. TFF is in the spirit of our childish anarchy, yet follows a formula, a precise tool for inverting our habitual patterns.
12173