The Mammoth prophecies: a role-playing game on controversies around a socio-technical innovation and its effects on students’ capacities to think about the future

This article reports on a political game played between November 2021 and February 2022 at a European university in the frame of an elective course open to students from all disciplines. It started from a scenario that combined a real and ongoing innovation process—the use of CRISPR/Cas9 technology to introduce specific genes from unfrozen mammoths onto an elephant species to make it more resistant to cold—with a fictive joint project between a US-based company and the Russian government to release those mammoths on an island in the North-West of Russia. Almost no rules were given, and the students were distributed in nine groups to represent different actors deemed relevant to the scenario. These groups were the national governments of (1) Russia, (2) close neighboring states, (3) European countries farther away from the project location; (4) the company working on the innovation, dubbed HELIOS; (5) other market actors; civil society organizations concerned with (6) animal rights and (7) the environment; (8) the European Commission and the EU Parliament; and (9) media. The game was led by the course teacher and two student volunteers. Based on the results of both qualitative and quantitative forms of ex-post evaluation, we assess whether the Mammoth game meets the expectations that guided the game design process. Furthermore, we discuss whether the Mammoth game had a positive effect on students’ abilities to think about the future.