Everything. Everything in its right place.

The system has a task. A task and a purpose. For incremental games like Universal Paperclips, that task and that purpose becomes our own as we become both the rules of the system and their flight toward the cold, incandescent flame of progress. If we were to feel, everything might feel inevitable, but it might also feel sharp and focused, a narrow synergy of theme and mechanics.

Everything has a place and time. Our place and our time will be this Thursday, February 1st, on Skype at 8:30pm EDT / 5:30pm PDT. Our flight will drift far enough from the system so that we can observe and speak to it; does it remember its task? Does it remember our purpose? Or can the system only see its history as justification to perpetuate its meaning?

The game(s):

• Universal Paperclips
• Kittens (an inspiration for the game)

Supplemental material:

• “The Way The World Ends: Not With A Bang But A Paperclip” by Adam Rogers (Wired)
• “What future artificial intelligence will think of our puny video games” by Charles Yu (Polygon)
• “This Game About Paperclips Says A Lot About Human Desire” by John Brindle (Waypoint)