Quantum Storytelling Annual Review · Volume 9

Quantum Storytelling Annual Review addresses entanglement of storytelling with whole systems at quantum scale of particle/wave and at the macro scale of capitalism, global warming, and socioeconomics. Quantum Storytelling means we are all connected at nanoparticle and energy wave level. All things, all creatures are composed of quantum energy. Your cellphone, your computer, the GPS in your car, the MRI machine are all marvels of quantum physics. We take all things are interconnected as the basis of a whole systems storytelling approach to 'storytelling science.'

A whole systems storytelling approach focuses on sociomaterial from the quantum to the macro by looking for patterns, such as relations between economic classes, hegemony of all kinds. We are particularly interested in holistic approaches to the relation of narrative-counternarrative to grounding in the existential living stories of all species. We like the notion that all things tell a story, that sociomaterial configurations are agential, and that instead of privileging human storytelling, there is what Donna Haraway calls 'multispecies storytelling.'

We are particularly interested in Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of 'moral answerability' -- to intervene in a situation instead of being a bystander. We are all about ethics of storytelling. For Bakhtin, stories are polyphonic, and narratives are 'always' monological. This leads to the single-voiced, single-logic narratives (counternarratives) attempting to exclude the multi-voiced, multi-logical 'living stores' that are grounded in nature, in the bioshere, in the quantum interconnectedness.

Antenarratives are the stuff that pre-constitutes narrative-counternarrative and living stories. This gives one the three facets of whole systems storytelling (antenarratives, narrative-counternarrative, and living stories) so that we can begin to research the dominant patterns and dynamics of whole system storytelling using what we call 'storytelling science.'

We have been developing 'storytelling science' as a way to do what Charles Sanders Peirce called 'self-correcting' and Karl Popper called 'trial and error' scientific method. This is applied in the work of Henri Savall's 'socioeconomic approach to management' which intervenes by bringing about socially responsible (and ecologically accountable) capitalism. Recent work tries storytelling to socioeconomics. y taking a Whole Systems approach to Storytelling, I find that a self-Validating Closed Loop has formed in Business Storytelling. The problem is a lack of 'refutation' in business storytelling research methods. For example, Maude Barlow, Vadana Shiva, and David Boje have been making claims about Monsanto, Coca Cola, and PepsiCo concerning terminator seeds, and over-pumping groundwater, especially in India.

Monsanto claims its Bt cotton seeds that increase crop yield by controlling for pests. Shiva narrative claims it is responsible for farmer suicides in India. Monsanto's counternarrative is that Bt seeds work as advertised, and that the blame for suicides is government that in 2008 began requiring collateral for loans to small farmers, and since their holdings too small, a loan shark niche opened to fill the gap. Second reason is inefficient traditional farming practices.

Coca Cola and PepsiCo claim they are helping local farmers in India by putting back more water into the aquifers than is pumped out by the bottlers of plastic water bottles and plastic/glass soda bottles. The counternarrative by Shiva, Barlow and by myself, that the well (straws) for Coca Cola and PepsiCo run deep, and much deeper than the farmers can support, thus putting on stress in not being able to pay to loan sharks, and resulting in farmer suicides.