NotebookFM | 2425

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NotebookFM

I’m sorry. I’ve made some slop. But in my defence It’s because I really wanted to be a guest on my newest favourite podcast – NotebookLM from Google.

I’ll be back in the flesh next week. Everything that follows was created by AI tools. I basically had nothing to do with it.

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Chad: Ever feel like you’re jumping between [00:00:30] different realities? Like all day long? Today we’re diving deep into these different worlds.

Stacy: Okay.

Chad: And we got Jay Springett’s work to guide us.

Jay: Thanks for having me.

Stacy: Cool.

Chad: He’s got some really fascinating ideas.

Jay: Yeah, I think about worlds a lot. Not just in the sense of fiction or games, but as a framework for how we exist across different environments. Techno-Social Systems. We’re constantly shifting between them.

Stacy: What I find so interesting, especially in world-running, is how you take this idea of worlds beyond just games or fiction.

Jay: Absolutely. [00:01:00] Worlds aren’t just metaphorical. The environments we operate in, whether they’re digital spaces or the workplace, have their own internal logics, their own boundaries. They are all worlds.

Chad: Got it. So, let’s unpack this a little.

Jay: Yeah.

Stacy: Right.

Chad: Where should we even start? Like, how do we wrap our heads around these worlds?

Jay: Well, I often compare defining worlds to defining games. We all intuitively understand what a game is, but you can’t necessarily give a perfect definition of what a game is when you take a step back.

Stacy: Worlds are kind of similar.

Chad: Okay, so we can feel it. But it’s hard to put [00:01:30] into words.

Jay: Right, but there are some things that both games and worlds share. Both a game and a world have a boundary and are internally consistent. So they have an inside and an outside. You’re either playing a game, or you’re not. And while you’re playing the game, the world has to make sense—it needs rules of some kind.

Stacy: So like, in a fantasy world, magic might be real, but it works within a consistent set of principles. And those rules might be totally different from our world, but inside that [00:02:00] world, they make sense.

Jay: Yeah, and that’s key. If the internal consistency breaks down, so does the world. It’s like when you watch a movie and a character suddenly breaks the fourth wall. These are the edges of the world, where one reality transitions to another.

In our daily lives, a simple boundary can be closing your laptop after spending hours online. That moment feels like stepping through a portal back into your offline life.

Stacy: Yeah, and those transitions, they can be jarring.

Chad: Yeah.

Stacy: Our brains get so used to the rules of a particular [00:02:30] world that switching gears can be tough.

Chad: It can be.

Stacy: Even if it’s just going from one room to another.

Jay: Right, yet we do it all the time—move from one world to another. The thing we need to remember is that this is all completely new. It wasn’t until Dungeons & Dragons came out in the 1970s that we could even experience stepping into a simulated world. You inhabited a character, and you could see it through their eyes. It was a really big shift.

Chad: Ah, so that shift from observer to participant.

Jay: Exactly. You weren’t just watching a story, [00:03:00] you were in it, making choices.

Chad: You’re in the story.

Stacy: And that shift has had a huge impact on how we engage with technology now, especially in digital spaces.

Chad: Right?

Stacy: We create online personas. We’re navigating these virtual landscapes and making connections in ways that blur the lines between real and digital.

Jay: And that’s where my concept of world(views) comes in. You adopt different perspectives depending on the environment you’re in.

Chad: So like, what you post on LinkedIn is going to be way different from what you share on a Discord server for your favorite band.

Stacy: You [00:03:30] have to understand those subtle differences.

Chad: It’s like learning a new language almost, or a new dance even.

Jay: Exactly. Each world has its own rhythm, its own culture. And to really engage, you have to understand those subtleties. You have to adopt the world’s worldview.

Chad: And this is where it gets even more interesting, okay, because Jay doesn’t stop at the rules of these worlds.

Jay: Nope.

Stacy: Right.

Chad: He’s interested in the stories we tell—the wait for it, the lore.

Stacy: The lore, yes.

Chad: That emerges as we interact.

Stacy: That organic, always evolving [00:04:00] narrative that comes from people interacting within a system.

Jay: Yeah, lore emerges from the inside. It’s shaped by everyone who participates. It’s the stories you tell about the world, and that applies to workplaces too. The culture of a company, for instance.

Stacy: That collective memory that makes a world really come alive.

Chad: It’s like those—what do they call them—water cooler stories?

Stacy: Right.

Chad: That everyone at a company knows.

Stacy: Right.

Chad: They’re not written down anywhere.

Stacy: Right.

Chad: But they still have a huge impact on how people act and interact.

Stacy: It’s like an [00:04:30] unwritten rule book.

Jay: Yeah, pretty much.

Chad: What worlds do you want to help build?

Stacy: Ooh.

Jay: Well, we’re all worldbuilders, whether we realize it or not.

Chad: What kind of lore are you putting out?

Stacy: That’s the beauty of it, right?

Chad: Yeah.

Stacy: You get to choose. You choose your worlds, you choose how deep you go, you choose the impact you make.

Chad: It’s about remembering that you have agency. You’re not just along for the ride.

Jay: No, you’re the architect of your own experience.

Chad: You are the architect of your own experience. And that is incredibly empowering. Thanks for joining us for this deep [00:05:00] dive, until next time.

Jay: Be well.