Finite games and infinite games

Author, James Carse, wrote an important book in 1986 called Finite and Infinite Games. In it, Carse points out that there are two types of games that human beings like to play. There are finite games and infinite games.

We play finite games all the time. For example, when the car next to you is racing through the intersection to beat the red light. Soccer is a finite game. And so is a presidential election. These would all be an example of a finite game. There are three distinct characteristics of finite games. You play finite games to win, they are made to end, and they have boundaries.

On the flip side, you have the infinite game. The purpose of the infinite game is to keep playing. You don’t play to win. When you throw a ball to your four-year-old, you don’t throw it as hard as you can so they will quit. No, you throw the ball to them so that they will throw it back.

Democracy, Capitalism, Nuclear Arms Races, and Climate Change are all games based on scarcity. They have played as a zero-sum game meaning if I win someone else has to lose. It has been played like a finite game for centuries. Not because we have to but because of the rules we decided to play with. Finite players will seek power while infinite are mastering self-sufficiency. Finite games in nature also “theatrical, necessitating an audience” while infinite games are “dramatic, involving participants.”

Carse wrote, “The infinite game—there is only one—includes any authentic interaction, from touching to culture, that changes rules, plays with boundaries, and exists solely for the purpose of continuing the game.“ Some rules in our culture are important in the sense that they enable humans to be human. Speeding through a school zone is against the law because of culture we decided that it is worth slowing down in areas where children tend to congregate. We don’t want dead kids. At the same time, we can bring our humanity into the system, the rules don’t need to be spelled out for every situation that arises—only when we understand which game we are playing.