Optimizing Ourselves Out of Our Humanity in Universal Paperclips

Today we're talking about Universal Paperclips by Frank Lantz! A game about making paperclips and making paperclips and making paperclips and making paperclips and making paperclips and making paperclips and making paperclips and making paperclips and making paperclips and making paperclips and making paperclips and making paperclips and making paperclips an

Play the game for free in your browser! Check out Frank Lantz's other work on his website!

Discussed in the episode:

• What happens when our computers get smarter than we are? by Nick Bostrom for TED on YouTube

Additional links:

• The Way the World Ends: Not with a Bang But a Paperclip by Adam Rogers for Wired
• Against Design by Frank Lantz on Game Design Advance

---

Visit our website!

Support the show on Kofi!

Follow us on Twitch!

Follow the show on Bluesky!

Check out The Worst Garbage Online!

---

Art by Tara Crawford

Theme music by _amaranthine

Additional sounds by Boqeh

Produced and edited by AJ Fillari
---

Timecodes:

• (02:44) - What is Universal Paperclips
• (05:52) - Play this in your browser for the love of god
• (13:40) - We all love a game that looks like poison
• (17:41) - Where the game ends up
• (23:39) - What is the game saying?
• (34:24) - Big Takeaways
• (34:50) - Kim's Big Takeaway
• (38:09) - Chase's Big Takeaway
• (43:55) - AJ's Big Takeaway
• (49:53) - Fuck AI, jump on a mushroom