5 ms·
The Permanent Upper Crow
- aselimov3 5mo agoThis is quality
- tardedmeme 5mo agono it isn't actually
- Yumat 5mo agoIt never ends… Super cool concept
- senfiaj 5mo agoYeah, the numbers will eventually overflow if you play long enough, it seems doesn't end.
- saaaaaam 5mo agoWell done! Fun and satirical
- dheera 5mo agoYep, this is basically the world today. The only difference in the real world: "What if I told you you can buy that $10 hat today using borrowed money that you don't have, pay $1/year interest for the rest of your life until you pay it back, but you have to earn $2/year more in order to have $1/year more to pay, but to earn $2/year more, your company has to earn $3/year more" "Oh and you also need to buy insurance for that $10 hat because it's not yours, and you have to pay us for the insurance we're going to buy in addition to the insurance you're going to buy to insure us from you, so that'll be another $1, or you have to make $2 more to have $1, or your company needs to make $3 more, so now your company needs to make $6/year more" "Oh and we're also going to devalue the $ so you actually need to make $10/year more because a $ won't be worth that much in a couple years"
- arjie 5mo agoFascinating. I was able to escape the suffering by simply not purchasing a top hat. An interesting lesson that the pursuit of conspicuous consumption is the root of one’s own suffering. A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
- xattt 5mo agoOnce I realized I couldn’t decline, I left the website and left the top hat on the table.
- ricardobayes 5mo agoThat's easier to do in a video game, but I guess the real life analogy would be to sell it all and move off-grid to Alaska?
- bix6 5mo agoSell what all? Isn’t everything just for rent now?
- tjohns 5mo agoI'd argue it's not about selling everything. Instead, avoid buying things by default and trying to keep up with the Joneses. You don't need to move to the wilderness, you just need to choose to escape consumerism. For example: - Do you really need a new car, when a lightly used one will do just fine and will be more economical? - Do you really need to upgrade to a new phone every year when your current one is still working fine? - Do you really need to buy premium clothes from the mall when the ones from Target are much cheaper?
- mossTechnician 5mo agoHow does that go for Americans who cannot afford to pay for a $400 surprise expense out of pocket? https://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerscommunities/sheddataviz/unexpectedexpenses.html https://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerscommunities/sheddata...
- nprbst 5mo agoCAWn't believe how hard this hits
- jc4883 5mo agoHow does it come up with the CEO and business' name? I assume there's gotta be finite number and the game has to end (?) Anyways, sick game.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- Tossrock 5mo agoThere's a pre-generated list with 106 entries, and when it reaches the end of that list, it loops around.
- ricardobayes 5mo agoBrilliant
- thegrim33 5mo agoWhat's interesting is the creator of the site has listed on their linkedin that they're ... wait for it ... a co-founder at some generic AI startup with the goal of using AI agents to automate away manual jobs.
- pocksuppet 5mo agoSo he's obviously on the winning side of this transaction. Hopefully the losing side is someone who isn't you. Maybe it's a VC fund.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- whiteblossom 5mo agoare we not all slaves to the top hat?
- keybored 5mo agoAre we the Baddies? Yes, and how interesting. I could vibe a game about that.
- bbor 5mo agoThere’s a lot more ways automation can turn out than “permanent underclasses”. It’s kinda like how some people build planes without supporting crashing them into things
- tardedmeme 5mo agoHe isn't building a plane but a device. What does the device do? He doesn't know.
- the_af 5mo ago> Are we the Baddies? Yes, and how interesting. I could vibe a game about that. The author's actual take is way less cynical. It seems he wanted to point out that a world where you try to save yourself at all costs while the majority suffers is not a good world. See: https://www.jasonwu.ink/signals/2026-05-27-permanent-upper-class https://www.jasonwu.ink/signals/2026-05-27-permanent-upper-c...
- juancn 5mo agoSo that's how you become a galactic civilization!
- RAZKOM 5mo agoI honestly love the look of the website. It makes me want to play/make a 2d scroller.
- whiteblossom 5mo agothank you! and noted ;)
- imnotyy 5mo agoReminded me of a book called Finite and Infinite Games
- proton_9 5mo agoThe one by Simon Sinek? I've just picked it for reading this week
- twalla 5mo agoJames P. Carse - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/189989.Finite_and_Infinite_Games https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/189989.Finite_and_Infini...
- hackboyfly 5mo agoIt’s a book I have tried to read 10 times. It’s to complicated, my context window is to limited.
- Tossrock 5mo agoIn case you're wondering, there are 106 CEOs / companies, and at 107 it just loops around.
- whiteblossom 5mo agoPRs to add web-llm welcome ;) though I would argue the current state is more reflective of reality... cheers
- calvisitor 5mo agohey when does this game end?
- whiteblossom 5mo agonever stop grinding
- imp0cat 5mo agoDepends on the lifespan of said crow.
- kbutler 5mo agoThe real message is that, even if you don't get rich and can't buy that clothing item that is 10x your nest worth, your work can provide for your needs and your family - rent, groceries, helping extended family... (Worked at a couple of startups, didn't get rich, but had good experiences, paid for family needs, and put aside investments for the future.)
- kennywinker 5mo agoI tried to decline the job, but rent was due
- soupspaces 5mo agoBeautiful
- kerblang 5mo agoI feel stupid but I could not bring myself to click the "sign" button and continue gameplay. A lot of electronic contracts are done like that and... nope, not clicking it... Mmmmm.... nope.
- jryio 5mo agoThis is a play on words from this (excellent) NYTimes Opinion piece by Jasmine Sun [1] titled "Silicon Valley is bracing for the permanent underclass" [1]": https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/opinion/ai-labor-work-force-silicon-valley.html?unlocked_article_code=1.l1A.2MIV.BiX3xJpcKnCE&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/opinion/ai-labor-work-for... (Gift article)
- stratos123 5mo agoI find this exact attribution very unlikely; this article is from April 2026 and the term "permanent underclass" is used in this way since at least 2025. In fact, the repo says: This is my social commentary on the "Permanent Upper Class" philosophical virus that has spread through San Francisco tech communities like the plague in the last year or so. You can read the original blog post [here]. While the game tells a grim story, my goal with this is to show how ridiculous this way of thinking is. I'm actually more optimistic that humans will find a way to prevent this future but if we don't then I suppose none of us will don top hats for eternity. and links to https://www.jasonwu.ink/signals/2026-05-27-permanent-upper-class https://www.jasonwu.ink/signals/2026-05-27-permanent-upper-c...
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- allknowingfrog 5mo agoI feel like I'm missing something here. Was this supposed to be a game? I just kept clicking and reading and clicking and reading. I finally gave up. If the goal is to tell a non-interactive story, I'd rather just scroll...
- smilekzs 5mo agoI sense a nod to https://papersplease.fandom.com/wiki/The_Republia_Times https://papersplease.fandom.com/wiki/The_Republia_Times
- bunforfun12138 5mo agoCool stuff hits hard
- whiteblossom 5mo agoI wasn't expecting this to get the visibility it did... but I want to say thank you to everyone that took a few minutes of their precious time to play through this. I made this on a whim yesterday. It's inspired by many of my experiences talking to folks in the AI space. While it paints a grim picture, I still have hope that we'll find a way out of this mess in the future. I also want to give some recognition for the visual inspirations here. The characters are inspired by one of my favorite indie games: Death's Door. I played this in Seoul a few years ago and ended up not sleeping the entire night just to play it. It's very affordable (even for undercrows), and will probably inspire many more of my future works. Not getting paid to say this - I simply think birds are cool. Remember - if you keep grinding, you might just be able to don that top hat... Cheers loves!
- Pwntastic 5mo agoAh yes, arbeit macht frei
- nullbio 5mo agoMoney is the root of all evil.
- anotherevan 5mo agoThat's a common misquotation of 1 Timothy 6:10 from the bible, which is that the love of money is the root of all evil. Not to get theological, but I reckon it's an important and informative distinction. Here's a link to the verse in many translations: https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Timothy%206:10 https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Timothy%206:10
- the_af 5mo agoAre you familiar with Molleindustria? [1] (Oiligarchy, Unmanned, Every Day The Same Dream) I think your game would fit quite well in that collection of "political" indie games. Which, in my opinion, is high praise. -- [1] https://www.molleindustria.org/ https://www.molleindustria.org/
- madrox 5mo agoIf crypto was a bunch of autodidacts speed running the history of finance, then AI is speed running the history of religion. This whole "permanent underclass" thing seems like it's just the Rapture in secular clothing. It's interesting watching each new generation relate to the rat race, but this current framing seems toxic. The economy is not a zero sum game. I worry about the amount people coming into the work force now thinking that unless they acquire generational wealth by 30 then they've wasted their life. That's a recipe for unhappiness. Save money. Skip the top hat.
- bcjdjsndon 5mo agoOf course ai execs are going to say AI will automate every job, but only a fool believes it. I guarantee we will still have tedious manual work in 25 years. People have been saying this for years. I mean do the math... Who buys anything from the robot overlords if we're all jobless? How do states exist without tax revenue? Why would anyone pay money to get a factory full of robots to make something if nobody's going to I buy it? Somebody please answer that last one