Chapter 19 Supplementary Discussion on E-Game - School of Rules

E-Game - School of Rules The behavior that leads to the formation of a spontaneous order has much in common with the rules that can be seen in games.Tracing the origins of gaming competition would be too far off topic, but there is much to be learned from historian John Hujinga's convincing and thorough analysis of the role of games in cultural evolution.His work (1949: see especially pp. 5, 11, 24, 47, 51, 59 and 100, see also Knight, 1923/1936: 46, 50, 60-66; Hayek, 1976: 71 and note 10) Has not been adequately evaluated by those who study the human order. Huijinga writes: "The great instinctive forces of civilized life have their origin in myth and ritual: law and order, commerce and profit, skill and craft, poetry, wit and science. They are all rooted in the primordial soil of play" (1949 :5); the game "creates the rules, (the game) is the rules" (1950: 10) ... "it follows fixed rules and proceeds in an orderly manner within its proper boundaries of time and space" (1949: 15, 51).

Games are, of course, an obvious example of a process in which members pursuing different and even conflicting goals obey common rules, from which an overall order emerges.In addition, modern game theory also demonstrates that some games result in gains for one party that are eventually offset by gains for the other, and games that result in net gains.The growth of the extended structure of communication is possible because individuals play the latter game, a game that leads to overall growth in productivity.