The Three Laws

In a dystopian future, an omnipotent AI judges citizens of The City based on how healthy, popular, and creative they are. Those who rank highest reap the rewards, but beneath the surface, things are never quite as black and white as they may seem...

1. Orientation 101 Welcome, new citizens!
2. This is the city It stretches to infinity
3. The city is a governed by an all-powerful AI
5. The AI decides how the city’s finite resources are distributed
6. The core of its approach is to reward ‘wellness’
7. A high level of physical and mental fitness. “Wellness
8. A “well” society is happier, healthier, and more productive
9. Each day, the AI grades you and places you in a list
10. The people at the top of the list get the most rewards
11. How do I rank higher in the results? “
12. The AI defines ‘wellness’ in the form of 3 laws
13. 1 You must be healthy You must eat a balanced diet. You must exercise regularly. You must be strong, fast and flexible. You must be fit, in mind and body. “THE FIRST LAW
14. 2 You must be creative You must be innovative, stand out, surprise and delight. You must write, play music, or create beautiful art. You must challenge how people think and behave. You must create a legacy. “THE SECOND LAW
15. 3 You must be popular You must be well-known, and well-liked. You must meet new people. You must maintain a healthy and diverse network. You must be talked about, wanted, loved. “THE THIRD LAW
16. Excelling in all of these areas requires a lot of hard work!
17. ...and we don’t know how well we’re doing in each category.
18. This is a perfect system
19. And it adapts to change
20. It’s even starting to be able to predict the future
21. We are imperfect
22. Some people spend all their time trying to reverse-engineer their grades
23. Some try to cheat, and to trick the machine
24. ...and many people cheat a little bit
25. Some spend all of their energy campaigning about how the system is unfair.
26. Some say that the system is evil
27. Do not worry, good citizens!
28. But not everybody is as well-behaved as you are...
29. So the system introduced a fourth law
30. ERROR ERROR 4 “THE FOURTH LAW You must act with integrity You must be completely honest and transparent in all of your dealings with The System. You must not attempt to deceive The System. Trust that The System knows best. Deceiving the system may lead to punishment.
31. I know what you’re thinking
32. Anyway, the system prefers rehabilitation to punishment
33. It even provides us with envoy droids to advise us
34. If you have any questions, you can ask them - there are some here today!
35. Okay - let’s explore a case study
36. We’re privileged to be joined by a very special guest today
37. Stand up, Taco!
38. This is a story about Taco’s journey
39. Many you know that Taco contributes to society through stand-up comedy
40. I’m sure you know that, Taco contributes to society through stand-up comedy
41. His problem was, he’d just kept doing what he’d always done
42. He didn’t want to change the way he’d always done things.
43. But to improve his position, he realised he’d have to change
44. 1 You must be healthy You must eat a balanced diet. You must exercise regularly. You must be strong, fast and flexible. You must be fit, in mind and body. “THE FIRST LAW
45. So, he audited his health
46. But there was no magic bullet
47. He had loads of small bugs
48. And, nobody’s perfect, right?
49. But it wasn’t just his health which was impacted by all of these bugs
50. 1 “THE FIRST LAW You must be healthy You must eat a balanced diet. You must exercise regularly. You must be strong, fast and flexible. You must be fit, in mind and body.
51. One night, a man approached him, and introduced himself as Mr Grey
52. 2 You must be creative You must be innovative, stand out, surprise and delight. You must write, play music, or create beautiful art. You must challenge how people think and behave. You must create a legacy. “THE SECOND LAW
53. So he paid Mr Grey to write him some new content
54. But then, things went wrong
55. His rankings dropped even further
56. 2 You must be creative You must be innovative, stand out, surprise and delight. You must write, play music, or create beautiful art. You must challenge how people think and behave. You must create a legacy. “THE SECOND LAW
57. But Mr Grey insisted that the problem wasn’t the content...
58. He said that he could get him more industry links & coverage
59. He said that, it was normal to use an agent to build links
60. 3 You must be popular You must be well-known, and well-liked. You must meet new people. You must maintain a healthy and diverse network. You must be talked about, wanted, loved. “THE THIRD LAW
61. He got introductions to influential journalists, peers and influencers
62. Mr Grey told him not to worry, and that they should do something bigger
63. So he invested a fortune in producing content for big PR campaign
64. Taco was starting to wonder if he’d been getting bad advice
65. 3 You must be popular You must be well-known, and well-liked. You must meet new people. You must maintain a healthy and diverse network. You must be talked about, wanted, loved. “THE THIRD LAW
66. So when Mr Grey approached him again...
67. He said that, were rumours of other places, beyond the wastelands
68. Obviously, this is nonsense
69. Things were looking bad for Taco
70. Then, he had a moment of realisation
71. His problem was that he’d only been thinking about himself.
72. The secret to getting all of this right, is to think about your impact on others
73. He went on a diet, and started exercising more regularly
74. He started writing new content, which was designed to appeal to his audience
75. He changed how he was talking to influencers, and made sure he was adding value
76. Now, Taco is on the road to recovery
77. That’s the end of our story
78. You have access to a life coach
79. It’s time for you to go out into the city
81. Good luck, new citizens!