Welcome to the Memorial of Serial Numbers. We are half a century knee-deep in the AI revolution. Do we know what we ought to know?

It is 2050—our children learn of crusading technological empires pillaging invisible lands and extracting visible resources. Who are the fallen, you ask?

The Clickworkers.

People who once sat by in their tiny corners of their dimly lit up homes chipping away at microtasks - anything from marking the area of trees, moderating live videos or answering a questionnaire.

In this dedicated Memorial, take a walk through countless graves, pay your respects to faceless workers, and contribute to donations that unite for a cause. You may notice that the grave is abuzz with life at daytime. This graveyard is the work of data cooperatives, and is one of the last remaining repositories of their ancestors.

Once you find yourself dwelling in the history of these people who spent laborious hours mothering a monstrous technology that governs us today, let us go back to all that consists of the resources required to build an AI empire. The construction of such towering superintelligence isn’t a mere intangible string of words and ideas–-it’s tactical. It can be felt and seen and touched. It’s the land you walk on, the water you drink and the energy that fuels everyday life. The Clouds were here on our lands; they were hot and loud, claustrophobic, and grey.

Then comes night. The sun takes away its light and life and the graveyard turns eerie and dark. Power haunts and olden tales of extraction and violence resurface. It is time to uncover the true villains at play. Underneath the soil, the dark underworld still exists. Gold, diamonds and billions. Stacked against the graves, the eternal masters of the trade know no death. They continue to skilfully extract resources, labour and time. Pitch your best strategy as the Master or the Slave in a combat of capital. Hire or Fire, Work or Protest, Quell or Unionise in a round of cards that can build or break you with the sleight of a hand. Is it all luck? Or does injustice have a strategy?

Come. Play the game to find out.

"Immaterial" is an overarching commentary on game design, amoral tech megastructures, and life itself. We apologise in advance for the frustration that you might end up feeling after the game.