Hi Jonathan,
We are companion travelers in this world, at least in the cyberspace. Happy to meet you here and thanks for your kind remark.
You wrote below that I completely in agreement: "The possibility for such a future remains open, but there is a danger we will undermine our capacity to engineer this outcome, unless certain trends are reversed. Science can help us create a positive future for humanity, but we must be willing to apply what we have learned more broadly, and to exalt the search for knowledge and the process of learning over the information learned and the specific insights gained. To do this; we must recognize the value of play." We do need to reverse our learning and working practices, from works to plays.
If you read my essay Chinese Dream is Xuan Yuan's Da Tong, I designed in the Scientific Outlook Free-Lunch Economic System that all works and learnings must be plays. Life is a Shakespearian play in the world's stage. Not just a "few get paid to play" but all free from slavery that all have nothing else to do but play all days long even in sleeping.
As you powerfully stated that "Play is far more universal, being the root source of all learning, and indeed of all consciousness and cognitive intelligence, but it finds expression in these subjects."
Yes for "from each to each according to his/her dreams and aspirations."
Jon, congratulation on your another master piece and I rated it a ten (10).
Best wishes,
Leo KoGuan