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Regular readers have heard me natter on about Star Power, an educational game for 12 to 35 players designed by R. Garry Shirts for Simulation Training Systems in 1969. The game combines chance and skill at trading to establish a score. Players are assigned categories based upon their relative scores, with the highest scoring category being able to change the rules. The game is designed to illustrate the behavior of human beings in a system that naturally stratifies them economically or politically.
Notice the language in italics, which is the most important aspect of the game. It exposes the most basic element of human interaction — the urge to accumulate power (usually represented by money) and to defend that power at all costs. There are anecdotal reports of instances when large groups of players have descended into physical altercations as the game moved toward its conclusion and had to be terminated by those in charge for the safety of all concerned. Some will find echoes of Lord Of The Flies, Animal Farm, Brave New World, and 1984 in the results of these Star Power simulations.
This coming week, the SpaceX initial public offering will take place — the largest IPO in history and one that will make Elon Musk the wealthiest person in human history by a large margin. Millions of words have already been written about this event — some of them by various contributors to CleanTechnica. Predictably, some believe that buying shares of SpaceX will make them millionaires, while others think it is a classic “pump and dump” scheme designed to extract money from foolish investors and transfer it to those on the inside — the “stars” in the Star Power game. As you read the reports that follow, pay careful attention to the parts about changing the rules. That is really the key to understanding this financial blitzkrieg.
