Friday, September 25

I spent the first part of the morning preparing for the Living Chatter fandango. I made sure that there were packs of pens and papers for everyone, and that the magic whiteboard worked. I checked that the room was signposted. I informed the information desk. I plumped up the cushions in Oasis.

At 10:40 the coffee and sandwiches arrived and so did the first delegates. Amica had made great sandwiches. They were all vegetarian and they all had about half an inch of thick Philadelphia cheese spread with chopped vegetables.

I gave a mostly improvised keynote speech to kick the day off, and then we set off to see what we could do. The basis of the day was a thought experiment brought to life. What would ten people who had no particular reason to be in the same room be able to do in terms of creating an idea that they could realise if they were provided with food and drink?

By lunchtime ideas had flown in and out of the room. By the time the afternoon cakes arrived we had two or three potential projects in the air. As they arrived I checked the website to see if we had promised anything we were no delivering. I am glad to say that it appears we are doing more than we promised.

We will continue to do more and when the final participants leave we will have two projects in motion. In the first a group of peple will meet to work out a democratic purpose for the planned Helsinki app. In the second the rest of the group will organise a summer school in Sicily in September 2016 to explore human agency. We will devise games and experiments with which to explore it, including Mia’s suggestion of referring to ourselves in the plural for specified periods.

When I get home Niilia will be there, which will be very nice. Irma will make food and we will eat and talk. Later Irma will take Niilia home and I will play with Sunshine.