Here Is My Power Button

Intimacy – Power – Artificial intelligence
By: Brodie Atwater (us)
Duration: 4 hours
Number of players: 8-16

 

Here Is My Power Button is a popular American game about relationships between artificial intelligences and their human users. It’s a game with a simple structure that derives most of its content from the idiosyncrasies of connection between the two players in each dyad.

In the game, you will play either a consumer or their paired AI. Consumers begin play with a character developed as part of the workshop, while AI begin as blank slates. AI will instead develop their characters through their interactions, either with their paired consumer or the rare moments when they can speak with another AI.

The game is an American freeform larp, which combines design cues from the Fastaval freeform elements that have trickled into the US along with eclectic principles from American traditions. There will be a strong workshop and character development period, which helps pair players with similar values and goals into dyads. Play is embodied throughout the game and uses a scene structure denoted with audio cues. These alternate between private dyad meetings and facilitated group sessions, in which consumers give feedback about the program and AI have monitored “enrichment” periods.

“Why does Here Is My Power Button elicit such a strong emotional reaction so consistently? It has interesting and provocative things to explore about sapience and autonomy, but it is best known as a relentless machine for wringing out human tears.” –Jason Morningstar

Download: Here is My Power Botton

Bio

Brodie (they/them) is an American who wants to do more Nordic stuff. They got their start through minor academic work on therapeutic play and have since started designing across American traditions. Their design aims for safety and buy-in through group identity in order to explore themes of transformation and Otherness. They are shy, like to dance, and are very happy to be here.