Producing, consuming, playing, belonging, buying and creating have collapsed into a single investment category.We call it Persistent Play.

Humans have always kept count. Of debts owed, harvests stored, days passed, distance covered. The impulse to record progress and return to it is older than writing.

Stories told at night, in episodes, ending on a hook so the audience returns tomorrow. One light source, a group facing it, a serialised structure. That format is prehistoric.

Two people, a shared surface, an agreed set of rules, and a reason to return tomorrow. Pachisi was played on cloth boards in India more than a thousand years ago on exactly those terms.

Humans organise into groups with membership, status and shared language. The village chowk, the guild, the temple committee, the adda. Everyone knows who is inside and what standing they hold.

Exchange, negotiation, and the pleasure of a good deal. The haat, the bazaar, the mandi. Buying has always been social, habitual and partly recreational.

Making a mark and showing it to someone. Some of the oldest art in India is a set of handprints pressed into rock. The impulse to produce something and be seen producing it has never lapsed.