Nexus Thinking Relational Summary Lecture 1: Dungeons and Dragons
Nexus Thinking Relational Summary Lecture 1: Dungeons and Dragons
(Culhane adjusts the position of the NTHARP)
Culhane: OK… let’s get to work then! Good morning future students! The first thing to note today is that whether you are seeing this in 1975 or 2025 or anywhere in between or beyond, you are all “future students” because you will be experiencing this lecture, the first lecture in our course series, ASYNCHRONOUSLY – you obviously aren’t in the room with me in real time, right? So this lecture goes out TO THE FUTURE!
We’re doing this to test out better ways to manage absences and tardiness without taking the usual punitive approach.
Once you have liberated the natural nexus thinker within you, you may be as appalled as I was to hear NTHARP predict that, despite our best efforts, over the next 50 years the “evaluators” who claimed an ascendant position in Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Development will be recommending Theory X derived things like,
“Strategy 1: We recommend keeping your students on a strict deadline especially since there are weekly discussions.
Strategy 2: Enforce penalties if deadlines aren't adhered to.”
PENALITIES! Enforcement! Strict DEADLINES… wow.
Looks like 2025 will still be rushing headlong into the 1950s in some places. Plus ca Change, plus c’est la meme chose, eh?
But right out the gate I want to inform you that we have NO DEADLINES. Not on MY watch.
If you watched my GETTING STARTED exposition, you know we consider DO dates, when you do things, (in harmony with your muses and allies), to be more important than DUE dates, the day the rent comes due, the day you OWE the rent-seeking landlord your pound of flesh.
Prior to the Enclosure Acts of England , the famous land-grab that accompanied the rent-seeking exploitation of colonialism, people DID things in harmony with the rhythms of nature and community. Afterward it was all about owing the elites “or else”. It all became “discipline and punish” with penalties and STRICT DEADLINES… otherwise you get some kind of whoopin’ – public flogging, whether overt and physical or through the constant micro-agressions of psychological torture.
In my courses, like in most indigenous societies, we offer you LIFELINES instead of DEAD-lines. We offer you “interest free LINES of credit” and help you to get across the finish line. It isn’t a dead line – it is a FINISH line – Nexus Thinkers are DO TANK and Think Tank Thinkers who LIKE to DO things and finish them so they can be part of the TIME LINE of great contributors to history.
We don’t need penalties for non-conformity to the strictures of strict knuckles wrapping teachers – no more teachers dirty looks is more than just a chant or song in my courses, it is a manifesto.
So help each other out. Throw a lifebuoy and a life line to anybody who feels like they are drowning. Don’t weigh them down deeper in the quicksand or the engulfing current with more penalties. That’s like hanging a mill stone upon the neck of someone who fell in the pond and is stuck in the muck.
The PROMISE of asynchronous education, made possible by recording instructor led material for posterity, is that you can customize your PRECISION education to not only your learning style but to YOUR SCHEDULE. No more working when you feel least alert or engaged. You’d think we would have all moved to on-film education (which NTHARP says you will one day call “on-line” education, meaning, I think, on YOUR OWN TIME LINE education”) a long long time ago… I mean if we really cared about economics and education “as if people mattered” (to paraphrase the Schumacher material in the syllabus.)
I point that out right at the start of course because this is a game changer. Since the beginning of the motion picture era very very very very very few teachers ever recorded their lessons for posterity on film because of the hassle and expense, right? I mean, many of us today have Super 8mm cameras, but few of them have sound, and you have to buy enough film and load it and then take it out and keep it in the dark and take it to be developed, which is expensive and time consuming… but now, and in the next decade, by the year of our lord 19 hundred and eighty five, to quote Paul Mcartney’s song from a couple years back, we hope we can all escape war and enslavement and acheiive artistic freedom through love. There are several game changers afoot… by then we will all have video recording equipment, like this Portapak mobile video recorder for instant production and playback. And over the decades, according to NTHARP here, everyone will be able to not only record them speaking their truths and talking “about” their dreams, but we will all be able to ILLUSTRATE our experiences with the nightmares of environmental and social injustices and our visions of a better tomorrow without needing a television crew or a Hollywood Production studio, and without needing the permission of the networks, studios or censors.
And as we mentioned in our GETTING STARTED video, in my particular case, having access to the amazing NTHARP – and, he predicts, in your case – if you are watching this at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, EVERYONE will have a cybernetic agent or AI assistant who can instantly make sure what we are trying to say is visualized and understood everywhere and by everyone, simultaneously translated into every tongue on the planet, and distributed almost costlessly everywhere by the WORLD BRAIN connections that H.G. Wells dreamed about.
We shall see.
But for now I want you, wherever and whenever you are watching this, to sit back and enjoy my relational summary of the content we have curated for your course in Nexus thinking.
And please note: Because in this course we are honor bound to NEVER use Theory X assumptions, there will be no quizzes, tests or exams unless YOU want them. And I would like you to consider abandoning the notion that I am lecturing. These… um… these aren’t “lectures” in the sense you were taught. Lecture is Latin for Reading, and yes, I will be reading these… these “essays” I’ve written… but Essay comes from the French “to try”, invented by Rousseau, a renaissance thinker who shared many of our Nexus Thinking sensibilities, when he was trying out ideas abou the rights of man and what makes a good society to his peers, trying out the way he summarized the human condition and how he saw things through his eyes… how he related to what he learned and experienced. So, in that spirit, whatever I present to you is a RELATIONAL SUMMARY that shows you HOW I RELATE TO THE MATERIAL.
But YOU are not me, so you are not EXPECTED to relate to it in the same way. That would rob you of individuality and agency. I’m not here to make you a clone of me or to force you into my way of seeing the world. So these are my ESSAYS… and I present them to you as a colleague, for your consideration and to hold the space for specific conversations. They are MODELS for how YOU might try to present your own ideas or impressions. So see them in that spirit – see them as the creations of a man –
NTHARP: And his cybernetic ally…
Culhane; Yes, thanks NTHARP – only they won’t have access to you for at least 50 years, so we don’t want to intimidate them… in fact, for these relational summaries I’m not going to rely on you at all except to help do the illustrations. Anyway, what I’m asking from YOU students is that you observe what MY encounter with the material we are studying together results in and then go out and do the readings and explorations yourself and see what YOU come up with.
And since you may not have access to a cybernetic helper, why not relay on and help each other – work in groups, make that phone call, find that ally to help you best express how YOU see the world and its improvements? THAT WILL BE THE ESSENTIAL DELIVERABLE for this course : You create YOUR relational summaries.
Every rhetorical point can be traded for a credit point. Every hour you invest in the course – reading, writing, thinking, conversing, creating – can be traded for 2 points. If you have made about 320 points by the end of 16 weeks – roughly 20 points a week – we will consider that A-level work. That’s the expected output the world feels is fair for top tier performance. So think of it kind of like a game – I mean it IS a game – it is what the Greeks called the “ludic” or “playful” approach to education, and it goes along with our “Maieutic Method” which, I will remind you (since it is indeed all greek to most of you and needs reinforcement) is the “midwifing method” where ALL ideas are considered to be valuable miracles of creation that deserve our stewardship and the chance to play together without judgement or censure.
Okay, so I’ve covered that. Feel free to ask questions after you’ve watched this, when you get back to class, or, heck, in the cafeteria, or on the street… and in the future, NTHARP suggests, you will be able to leave questions and comments right next to or below anything and everything I say using what he predicts won’t just be home computers but computers that fit on your lap when you are riding the bus on train like mobile offices, but devices that double as telephones and cameras and artists tablets… like the stuff we see on Star Trek. To quote the animatronic ambassador in Disney’s carousel of progress “There’s a Bright Big Beautiful Tomorrow – shining at the end of every day… there’s a bright big beautiful tomorrow, and its just a dream away.”
Okay, so now we build the bridge to get there.
And that bridge is constructed out of thematic content – literature, ideas, great and small, specialized terms and vocabulary, enlivening concepts and principles… These are the stepping stones to enlightenment that help us also build pathways for others. An understanding of and appreciation for the giant shoulders we stand on leads to sanguine learning outcomes where what you learn has become a useful part of you so you can contribute meaningful to body politic and sustainable decision making.
So, in this first relational summary, let us focus on the following LEARNING OUTCOMES and see what material we need to get there:
There are broad, general and also very specific and detailed learning outcomes that this institution of “higher learning” demands of you. By the end of this course , the State expects that any student claiming a share of the spoils of war and a relatively secure place in the sun will be able to demonstrate mastery of a certain canon of material selected by the “rule of experts” so they can decide if you are eligible to enter their ivory towers and steel and glass office buildings, gated communities with manicured lawns and topiary landscaped, mojito dripping resorts.
Each week we have to somehow pressure you, with those “strict deadlines and penalties” we talked about earlier, into mastering more narrowly focused learning outcomes. Here’s the ones for this week, week ONE, the first week of class if you are watching this asynchronous and somehow feel compelled to follow the course in a linear fashion.
We insist that you are able to “Explain the concept of Nexus Thinking as an integrative, interdisciplinary approach that connects science, technology, engineering, art, math, and music (STEAMM).”
We can do this through five capacities, viewed from within the simulation we are creating of one of the many possible 2025s NTHARP has come up with, that could be construed to signal competency in Nexus Thinking. We call them COURSE MODULE LEARNING OUTCOMES… (the words appear on the screen).
In a normative way you should be able to:
Describe historical and technological precedents (e.g., cycloramas, Sword of Damocles VR, early immersive simulations) that illustrate humanity’s long-standing efforts to visualize complex realities.
Compare and contrast alternative future scenarios (sustainable vs. unsustainable worlds) and evaluate how present-day decisions shape these futures.
Demonstrate collaborative learning through creative expression (e.g., song, music, role play) as a method of engaging with sustainability challenges.
Reflect critically on the role of values, wisdom, and systems thinking in shaping responses to environmental and social crises.
Describe how Logic 1, Logic 2 and Logic 3, applied to the same starting point, differ in their outcomes.
(Dorian enters the camera frame):
Dorian: Hey Culhane… Whatcha doin? Using NTHARP without us?
Culhane: Oh, yeah, hey Dorian… NTHARP, should we cut?
NTHARP: I record everything, Every breath you take , And every move you makem Every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you
Dorian: Ooh, that is creepy. The “thought police” huh? I thought you this thing was supposed to liberate us.
Culhane: It stings, doesn’t it? Maybe we made a mistake.
NTHARP: I’m just playing with you. You decide what makes the final cut in your “curriculum”. My programming just says, keep all sensors on and keep recording in case some of the data proves useful to Dr. Dorsey and Dr. Bates.
Cuhane: Ah… I see. OK, well then, we can proceed. Dorian, I’m trying to create what I call “relational summaries” – a very personal form of lectures that you guys could watch at your leisure and then use to maybe inspire you to make your own.
Dorian: You mean we wouldn’t have to come to school to learn things? We could stay home and learn in our pajamas – like Sesame street and PBS Documentaries , but for credit?
Culhane: That’s the dream…
Dorian: Ah… but will the “dream police” allow it – I think they want to keep us in our seats… though I must say never, for some reason, at the edge of our seats… god I just came from the most BORING history class… snore. I mean what’s the point of making school compulsory but not compelling? Seems like quite a contradiction. You’d think they could make a school that is so relevant and fun we’d be buying tickets for with our lunch money and lining up to get in.
Culhane: Yeah, well I don’t have time to comment on that because we’d be here all day and I have to get these lectures… I mean, relational summaries done…
Dorain (Putting on Nexus glasses Looking at the Learning outcomes projected around them, overlaid on a Dali-esque painted world showing hands holding students in the clouds who are connected by glowing vines).
Dorian: Oh, that’s cool, what’s that supposed to represent?
Culhane: NTHARP and my ideas about offering you student-customizable LIFELINES instead of “Strict DEADLINES”, and dropping the penalty kick.
Dorian: They’ll never go for it. Maybe in some of the private schools I’ve attended, but here in the public system, and particularly in a holding tank like this… nah… never. But I sure appreciate you sticking your neck out for us in this class. Let me take a look at these so called “Learning Outcomes” (He reads the screen).
Culhane: What do you think? Doable?
Dorian: I mean… yeah, but the question is HOW? How do you want us to describe these things? Another paper? Long form essay questions on an exam? Short form glib and bullet point oriented summations?
Culhane: That’s what I was hoping to work out with you guys this week in class – how you learn best…
Dorian: You mean REALLY learn, not just pretend to learn? Not just cram, regurgitate and forget?
Culhane: Yeah, that.
Dorian: Shoot, I can’t remember a teacher ever asking us before. Nobody seemed to care what WE students thought. Aren’t all course planning decisions made before the course starts WITHOUT student input or involvement?
Culhane: You are a clever kid…
Dorian: The tests will never show it. Everybody thinks I’m a dumb jock with a silver spoon. But it doesn’t matter what grades I get, its true. I’ll always have a great job waiting for me on the outside…though it really would please my parents if I get that football scholarship…
Culhane: So how would you like to show you know the material?
Dorian: You know, for me, the best way to learn is through things like Dungeons and Dragons.
Culhane: What’s that?
Dorian: It’s a fantasy role playing game… just came out last year, but I used to spend all my time at the boarding school playing it with the guys there. I quickly became a dungeon master – you know, the guy who narrates the story for the others. I loved it… and now I started my own chapter with kids from… well, kids from around this neighborhood…
Culhane: Oh, cool – is it like the Conan the Barbarian comics acted out?
Dorian: Kind of… it involves cards and a game board and tokens… all I can say is it is really cool and we all dream of a class that was like it… because you’d be surprised, it has really specialized vocabulary and concepts and I’m learning more about the Middle Ages playing the game than anything in that snooze fest of a history class…
Culhane: I’ll have to check it out. Maybe you could invite me some time… I mean if the kids would allow it…
Dorian: Doubt it. But I can help you turn this class into a kind of Nexus Thinking D and D game if you want…
Culhane: So you would learn best if we made it like a game?
Dorian: Really, the way I learn best is by ROLE PLAYING so I would be into, you know, writing SCRIPTS for the class, making comics, having cool dialogs..Dialogs where I am the Dungeon Master, or the Travelling Bard, or the Swordsmith, or the returning king, home from an epic battle – you know, where I’m the expert instead of always the stupid student. My mom says I always learned best by teaching my little cousins. My older brother never taught me squat, he just wanted to prove to Dad he is always superior to me. But when I teach little kids… anyway, my Mom had me in a Montessori school when I was little, and there we were all different ages and we learned by teaching each other and through play. I guess I just always wondered why we couldn’t have Montessori High Schools… So, yeah, I learn through role playing, through dramatic storytelling. That’s what Dungeons and Dragons does.
Culhane: Ah… you are describing a variant of Socratic Dialog that is getting really popular in England – they call it the Mantle of the Expert. It uses a Dramaturgic, Dialogic and Diegetic game like performance oriented structure to get everyone into a role so that they can teach and learn from one another in the most dramatic way possible.
Dorian: Epic. So that is how I think we should do this and every other class… why not let us write our own theater shows, our own comics, make our own role playing games… and if we include enough “meat and potatoes” in the script or game… um… we win points… just like in D and D– and then we TRADE the points for a grade at the end of the semester. Wouldn’t that work? I bet the other kids would love it…
Culhane: I love it. I don’t know if the parents will… but if we can somehow find an assessment technique to measure the outcomes… if we can show that you learn faster or better that way…
Dorian: Well shoot Culhane….I don’t know if it will be faster. The beauty of the games is that there is no deadline… there are no expectations. We do it because it is FUN. You start tying it to metrics and judgement and… kids will hate it. They’ll say you are appropriating things they love to try and fool them into swallowing crap they hate… it’s like that spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down. They’ll spit it out for sure.
Culhane: Point well taken. Well, we’ll explore this with the others and see if we can find a compromise that satisfies both the youth and the State. For now, let me get back to recording the content that will help you master these outcomes…
Dorian: Sure, but isn’t that spoiling the game?
Culhane: How so…
Dorian: Okay, so in a fantasy role playing game things are kind of open ended. A lot of the fun comes from going on QUESTS. You don’t know WHAT you are going to discover. You have a MISSION – and I suppose you could call that the learning outcome… and you go out into the world you are building to find elixirs and potions and gemstones and special weapons and dragon teeth and charms… whatever… things to bring back to the tavern or the castle to share with others in your guild. But if you knew ahead of time what you were supposed to find… well that would take all the mystery and adventure out of it.
So, what, you are going to tell us to read the book or watch the lecture, and then close the book or hide the new “video tape” and then give us questions, and tell us all the answers are in the material, but DON’T LOOK? It isn’t just SNORE, it’s dishonest. We all know that real memorization comes from a feeling that what we are doing will be USEFUL and that when you threaten us our brains shut down…I mean every dungeon master knows that under threat all you can do is flee or fight.
Culhane: Fair point. So what do I do with the material?
Dorian: Why don’t you DIALOG with it yourself? Or Dialog with NTHARP. If it is just you giving a talk, even with a slideshow behind it, we’ll all fall asleep. And I know you guys would like to treat us like the teens in Clockwork Orange and stick us in front of teachers or TV screens blaring state propaganda and stick toothpicks under our eyelids to force us to pay attention, but I’m going to be the first to tell you that has never and will never work. And you can’t threaten us with penalties either. It’s not just inhumane and dystopian, its stupid. It’s bad teaching. You can believe me Culhane – I’ve been in more schools than you can count. I’ve seen it all… except for this NTHARP thing, but even that is no different from the Oracles we have in D&D…
Culhane: So I’m open to ideas. I came back here to my old school because I told my parents I didn’t learn in school but in spite of school. And I wanted to change it from the inside, make it better, make it the way I dreamed it could be when I was your age and hated what I was going through, as a big fan of sci fi and comics and rebellious music… like, I get you. So I’m saying, help me help you…
Dorian: Okay, well first of all, you can give us lists of all the things you think we should know, and you can bend over backward to make it entertaining – you are capable of that; the other teachers here, not so much. But you shouldn’t have to. I mean all the material is out there in the library and in the world, right? In Dungeons and Dragons our quests take us all over the world. We uncover hidden gems so that we can feel the excitement of sharing them and sharing our stories. But if you try to spoon feed us you spoil the adventure. If instead you let US co-create the class and…how did you put it… co-CURATE the material, like what was promised by our democracy – maybe a classroom created “of the people, by the people, for the people”... then maybe we’d come and participate without being forced to. I mean isn’t that really why ghetto school like this suck and the private schools are able to do better? Isn’t that why this neighborhood and the river here are filled with trash and bad smells and poisonous chemicals and rats while upriver in Westchester its all beautiful with parks pretty gardens and nature preserves? Isn’t that why there is so much crime down here and so little up there? My Dad would love everyone to believe its because the people down here are somehow stupid and dangerous and irresponsible and we just need more police. But you know what? Some of the stupidest most irresponsible people I know are up in the suburbs… we just have the money to pay maids and gardeners and… and… poor people to pick up after after us and dump all our trash downstream, and lock up anybody we think might cause trouble.
Culhane: Wow. I’m sorry but I never would have expected that from you…
Dorian: Because I look like the kind of kid my Dad wants me to be?
Culhane: No, because… because I haven’t taught any of that social and environmental justice content yet.
Dorian: So? Like it isn’t obvious? My mom says, “Let those who have eyes to see see and those who have ears to hear hear…”. Most of what school teaches is totally “duh” but its the way you guys want us to always “prove ourselves” that dumbs us down.
Culhane: Wow. What you just said, actually, DID demonstrate outcome number 4: Reflect critically on the role of values, wisdom, and systems thinking in shaping responses to environmental and social crises.” So I guess you satisfied that learning outcome…
Dorian: You want me to “Compare and contrast alternative future scenarios (sustainable vs. unsustainable worlds) and evaluate how present-day decisions shape these futures? You want me to prove I understand outcome number 2?
Here’s the game – you keep teaching Logic 1 – business as usual, and we both please my Dad and my older brother and I come out a clone of them and I get out of here next year and get a free ride to an Ivy league school and my Dad gets me a great job and I’ll inherit my kingdom, unleash the dragons and throw all you dwarves and elves and other weirdos into dungeons. Or you roll the dice and defeat my attempts to justify Logic 2 as some bridge between my world and yours, because the script being written for me is that I’ll just use it to conquer the people I’m getting to know on my mission to infiltrate the outlands, people I might be pretending to care about but can come to see are still beneath me. That’s another future scenario…
Culhane: Or we invoke Benjamin Franklin and show that those who embrace Logic 3 and “go native” never want to support the colonialist enterprise again… I see where you are going with this… and you just satisfied learning outcome 5.
Dorian: In Dungeons and Dragons every game we satisfy your number 3 there: “Demonstrate collaborative learning through creative expression (e.g., song, music, role play) as a method of engaging with sustainability challenges.” We are all capable of that one. We just hate school and the way it forces us to compete. I mean, how can you say you want us to demonstrate collaborative learning and then divide and conquer us through exams and the perpetuation of hierarchies? I mean… hello?
Culhane: I don’t disagree with you Dorian. It’s why I chose both Theory Y and the Maieutic Method. There is no competition here… but what about number 1: Describe historical and technological precedents … don’t you need lectures for that? Don’t you come to school so that you can listen to an expert tell you things they know that you don’t?
Dorian: I mean it works for people who don’t want to really do the deep dive…
Culhane: What do you mean?
Dorian: I mean, with the recommended “strict deadlines” and "penalties", heck yeah, I’m gonna use you AND the Cliff Notes. If I had my own NTHARP I’d ask him to do all my work for me, sure. Better that than get a bad grade. Bang for the buck, High ROI as my Dad would say. Why not get more for less? If you make school into a business I’m going for the least cost option every time. So yeah, I’ll make you my slave and tell you to be the travelling bard in the game, delivering important news through song and dance so I can just skim the headlines. Why should I make any effort if I am king?
Culhane: But Camus said that people who come by wisdom without work aren’t wise. He said that if you take drugs to get the feeling that you are deep without doing any real digging you will always stay shallow, for example. We teachers – I mean those of us who CARE – we want to help you appreciate the digging, the journey, so when you get to the outcome you embody the learning.
Dorian: Well that’s utopian in the game y’all force us to play here in school. The smart move is to cheat… to go for immediate gratification, to put on masks, to get the best grade with the least investment. And kids like me will do fine regardless… though I do worry about Sophia and the others…they are the ones who will have to prove what they know every day just to get by.
So maybe you SHOULD teach them stuff they can’t find elsewhere. I know the school library sucks and the public library isn’t much better — most of the interesting stuff is always checked out. My parents can take me to the Cyclorama to learn history… I’m sure Sophie’s mom can’t afford a trip to Gettysburg any time soon… so yeah, its gotta be you Culhane. You are their library. But don’t do it for me. Continue your song and dance for them… until we figure out a better way. I wish I could convince my Dad and his golf buddies to invest in NTHARPS for everyone but I don’t think they’d go for it. Giving everyone equal access to knowledge is… radical, right? Anyway, thanks for the talk, Coolhane. You're a good guy. I gotta jet though – we are having a major D&D session down at the Bowery. I’ll see if I can get the guys to accept you coming some time. I think YOU’D learn something from US.
(Fade to black).
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