This afternoon at Brainery Convocation
Principal Vivendi was uneasy. Years of pressure from the union federation Activocacy, and now the unexpected win by one of Brainery’s students of the Ecovision Song Contest, meant that he could no longer ignore the pressure to focus this semester’s Convocation meeting on the terms of partnership with the radical climate action group MonkeyWrenchX. The winning song, Verde este Mundo, was now an international hit and even seemed to be becoming the City State’s informal anti-national anthem.
How to frame the meeting though? Clearly the days of being able to vaguely signpost strategic intention were past, the partnership was inevitable, and the challenge now was how to work with @MWX without risking legal challenges or – god forbid – arrest. It was already borderline impossible to fly in and out of Brainery City State following several years of direct and barely legal hacktion at the airport, which Principal Vivendi had been obliged to publicly support. @MWX’s disturbingly compelling leader Stella Vide would be attending by holo-drop, as would half the Professoriate.
A few years back his counterpart at Flexi Tech had quietly arranged the deep-faking of the activist leader Sandeep Mahai in order to moderate the partnership terms with Wealth Share Action. Their Vice Chancellor was now doing five years community service in New New York, so that wasn’t an option for Brainery. A partnership in good faith was the only way to go with this one, even though the Shareholders weren’t going to like it. Vivendi picked up his tablet and shut his office door.
Tempora mutantur.
Links
Scenario (Justice-driven innovation)
Next scenario (Return to the ivory tower)
Higher Education Futures (project page)
