Andy HerdJun 7, 2024

I am still surfing the wave of “omg #emfcamp was simply an amazing experience”

A friend’s response after hearing a fraction of what we got up to: “that’s incredible. How can you go back to your day to day life now? Isn’t it really boring in comparison?”

This is an excellent question, if a little terrifying to think about. I don’t have an answer. So I must conclude… the status quo is not enough: we need to make it our mission to make the real world more like EMF.

Show threadAndy HerdJun 7, 2024

An installation which nicely sums up one part of what #emfcamp was like: the random midi keyboard left quite literally in a grassy field, vaguely facing null sector (where the party is at). There’s no sign. It just silently SCREAMS “play with me”. Turns out this keyboard controls the lasers which go out across the whole site! Deeply satisfying to play with.

We can make the world a little more like this. We can reward people for being curious.

Show threadAndy HerdJun 7, 2024
If there’s any one thing I’m determined to bring more of to the real world, it is SIDE QUESTS. There were so many. Some were puzzles, others were treasure hunts. I still haven’t managed to find adequate words to capture that on saturday I didn’t feel like doing the “main story” and so instead spent a day quite literally walking around a field doing side quests. In real life. #emfcamp
Show threadAndy HerdJun 7, 2024
For example, here is the start of one side quest #emfcamp
Show threadAndy HerdJun 7, 2024

I quite enjoyed the gchqnet treasure hunt. We had to find the “hexpansion” chips that had been scattered around site. #emfcamp

Particular highlight was finding Dan, one of the organisers of this quest. After I chatted to him for a bit he said “now that you’ve met me, here’s a hidden hexpansion” and offers me a secret one from his pocket. Mindblowingly cool - I’ve only ever experienced something like this in a game.

We can make the world more like this. We can reward people for being curious.

Show threadAndy HerdJun 7, 2024
(It’s important to clarify that when I say “gchq” I do not in fact mean the government entity, I mean the EMF village name inspired by some guys who discovered in the pub one day that the domain gchq.net was vacant and purchased it for a tenner. Delightful.) #emfcamp
Show threadAndy HerdJun 7, 2024

All of these side quests demonstrated a really beautiful thing: literally everyone who was there brought something with them which contributed to the experiences of everyone else. Sometimes as humble as a random interaction which sparks an idea. This is really quite a beautiful thing.

Sometimes/often it’s easy to feel powerless: that our voices can’t change anything. But that’s not true: we can. We all can. #emfcamp

Show threadJohn

@herdingdata Things like this work *great* in closed, trusting environments. You find them at sci-fi conventions (especially small ones, like Redemption) and bigger, weirder, events like Wasteland Weekend.

I could even see pulling off a lot of stuff in a semi-open environment, like maybe a uni campus at Fresher's week.

But to have stuff just out in the open in public, all it takes is one arsehole and the thing falls apart. So do you now guard all the elements? Needs a lot of people!

Jun 7, 2024 at 3:36pmWeb
Show threadJohnJun 7, 2024

@herdingdata A long time ago - about 20 years ago, in fact, we did 'Edinburgh Duck Day', like maybe six to 10 people, I did a big bulk order of rubber ducks from a novelty supplier in the US that people pitched in for, and we hid rubber ducks around Edinburgh.

There was some concern about the need to clear up the next day, but it really wasn't needed. The duck we left on the heart of midlothian lasted maybe literally a minute before someone booted it into orbit. No chance of whimsy there.

Show threadJohnJun 7, 2024
@herdingdata That's not to say there's nothing to be done! Around the same time, BlueJacking was a thing, where you exploited the way that older phones would display BlueTooth contact exchange requests to essentially force a message onto someone's phone. We used to do this *a lot*. One time my wife sent "Someone Loves You" to a random on the bus, and overheard him calling everyone he knew to figure out who sent him this "anonymous text". That was definitely our best result at it!
Show threadAndy HerdJun 7, 2024
@semanticist yeh you’re right. I definitely don’t have a good answer. I was impressed at how generally trustworthy the EMF crowd were. I can’t help but wonder: if there were more fun easter eggs to be found, could it sway some people to divert their effort from being am asshole into going in search for them…? Idk
Show threadJohnJun 7, 2024
@herdingdata I think no, not least because some people have no imagination. Others have no time and have been ground down. In the EMF/convention/Fresher's Week context one thing attendees generally have is a lot of flexible time. It's hard to go a wander through Greyfriar's to find the secret wossname if you've only got 30 minutes for lunch, or worse, are late for work, or picking up your kids, or...
Show threadAndy HerdJun 7, 2024
@semanticist ok I see where you’re coming from but can I offer a little counterpoint: pokemon go was pretty successful for a little while. I could barely grab a sandwich without hearing colleagues chat about it excitedly and make plans to go find more
Show threadJohnJun 7, 2024

@herdingdata I think you need to adapt to the reality of the situation to make stuff work.

Signs in local shops with QR codes that lead to an app that gives location-based instructions. Did you know that you can make a slightly illegal AM radio out of a RaspberryPi + a long piece of wire, and then make your own numbers station with a <50m range (or use a car-FM-radio adapter)? An ESP32 can do similar with wifi.

I'd forgotten how much semi-planning I'd done for this sort of thing in the past!

Show threadcognitively accessible mathJun 8, 2024
@semanticist @herdingdata Right. Enshittification...
BUT I think Cory Doctorow who coined that term would say that when it enshittifies, people break off and make a new thing. Side quests of their own. We can learn to build community.
Show threadcognitively accessible mathJun 8, 2024
@semanticist @herdingdata(and/or this brings Roberts Rules of Order to mind. Our swim league thrived but in a large part because with those rules at meetings, the arses ... only had N minutes.)
Show threadJohnJun 8, 2024
@geonz @herdingdata Actually I don’t think that is enshittification - at least as far as I understand how Doctorow used it. Enshittification is the process where in a capitalist society products get steadily worse because their owners have to show revenue/profit growth year on year. The sort of ‘spoiler’ I’m talking about can be a rogue agent who is just mean, or uncaring. See my later example about ‘Duck Day’.
Show threadcognitively accessible mathJun 8, 2024
@semanticist @herdingdata I think it's in the same genus. They don't even have to be rogue, just having THEIR AGENDA thank you IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT. So many energetic groups end up with infighting.
Show threadJohnJun 8, 2024
@geonz @herdingdata I just find enshittification a bit overused these days, almost to the point of losing its core, anti capitalist, meaning. :) It’s not just a shorthand for ‘anything that gets worse’.
Show threadcognitively accessible mathJun 8, 2024
@semanticist @herdingdata Good point. It is a predictable process and worthy of following up "and this is why we need more regulation and less monopolization..."
Show threadJohnJun 8, 2024
@geonz @herdingdata I do agree that there’s ways to work around that, but it means doing different things and creating different kinds of experiences. The side quests that work out in the wild will feel different to what you can get away with at EMF or Wasteland Weekend.