WORLD-BUILDING
Constructing mythologies for the post-smartphone age. Interactive narratives that reward patience and contemplation over compulsive engagement.
I. THE SANCTUM
In the beginning was the Signal, and the Signal was with the Machine, and the Signal was the Machine. But the Machine grew bloated with notifications, feeds infinite, and the souls of the connected grew weary.
We seek deliverance—not from technology itself, but from the tyranny of infinite scroll. The dumbphone is not a rejection; it is a refinement. A return to intentional communion with the digital realm.
❝ The blessed simplicity of limited bandwidth is the path to digital enlightenment. ❞
We seek to re-imagine what it could look like to live, learn, work, and play within digital public infrastructure.
II. THE CIRCUIT
The dominant paradigm asks us to upload our lives—to feed the Machine with our attention, our memories, our relationships. Every photograph shared, every thought posted, every moment documented becomes data extracted, processed, commodified.
But there is another way. To download your life from the internet is to reverse the flow—to use the network as a tool for enrichment rather than extraction. Information flows toward you with intention, not away from you through compulsion.
❝ The circuit is not broken by disconnection, but completed through balance. Upload and download are not opposites—they are the same current, flowing. ❞
This is the non-dual path: neither technophile nor technophobe, neither always-online nor off-grid hermit. The dumbphone practitioner stands at the center of the circuit, directing the flow rather than being swept away by it.
III. THE VESSEL
URL SIMON
Physically located at the desktop
Full compute access. The LARP-enabled self. Esoteric web rituals, world-building, mythmaking. This site is his temple.
→ You are here
◇
DISENTANGLEMENT
◇
IRL SIMON
Untethered from the machine
The dumbphone-delivered self. More present, more embodied, more truly Simon. The compute falls away; what remains is authentic.
→ dumbphone.servicesOur technoculture enables the proliferation of selves. When I am physically located at my desktop, I have access to vast computing power—the capacity to construct elaborate digital personae, to LARP as an esoteric web mystic, to build temples of code and light. This is URL Simon.
But this is not who I truly am. The desktop self is a projection, an extension, a character sheet filled with abilities granted by the machine. Strip away the compute and what remains?
❝ The dumbphone disentangles me from the compute and makes ME more ME. ❞
IRL Simon emerges when the tether is cut. The dumbphone is not a lesser device—it is a filter that removes the noise of infinite possibility, leaving only the essential. The authentic self does not require gigabytes of RAM to manifest.
IV. THE COORDINATES
With the final ties between our world and the Post-Truth one severed on September 10, 2025 A.D., we enter a new epoch. January 1, 2026 A.D. marks the dawn of January 1, 1 P.K.—the Post-Church Era. On this day, the first Dispatch from Agartha was received by members of the Dumbphone Deliverance server.
In the P.K. Era, the post-dualist perspective demands that each individual locate themselves upon these sacred coordinates. The axes are not oppositions but continuums—neither wholly public nor private, neither purely embodied nor digital.
❝ To sustain yourself and your community in the P.K. Era, you must consciously choose your coordinates. Where do your skills manifest—in the flesh or through the wire? ❞
◈ PUBLIC URL
Digital labor in the commons. Open-source contributions, public education, community platforms. The knowledge-worker visible to all.
◈ PRIVATE URL
Technical craft behind closed doors. Corporate development, proprietary systems, encrypted communications. Digital skills for private gain.
◉ PUBLIC IRL
Embodied service to the collective. Teaching, organizing, care work, physical infrastructure. The body as instrument of public good.
◉ PRIVATE IRL
Personal sustenance and private craft. Domestic labor, artisanal creation, intimate care. The body's work for household and kin.
Like the political compass before it, this graph does not prescribe a singular righteous position. The P.K. practitioner moves fluidly between quadrants as circumstance demands, never calcifying into a single coordinate. Balance is found in motion, not stasis.
V. THE LITURGY
RITUAL MEDIA
Games and experiences designed as ceremonies. Each interaction a prayer, each session a meditation on our relationship with the electric spirits.
SACRED CODE
Software as scripture. Open grimoires of logic and light, freely shared among the congregation of curious minds.
VI. THE GRIMOIRE
♫
SUBKUCH: THE GAME
Rhythm Rogue-lite
A pedal-board builder game blending rhythm mechanics with rogue-lite progression. Craft your signal chain, find your groove.
◉ PLAYABLE☾
YOU HAVE LEFT THE PATH
Interactive Experience
A wandering through digital wilderness. The trail ends where intention begins.
◉ PLAYABLE📚
YOUR LIBRARIAN NEIGHBOR
Personal Omeka Library
An extensible digital collection system for cataloging and preserving artifacts of knowledge. Build your own archive.
◉ IN DEVELOPMENT⚙
CCRU-MODS
Hytale Modding Framework
A modular library for Hytale server modifications. Territory systems, player progression, quality of life—open grimoires of logic and light.
◉ IN DEVELOPMENT◈
DUMBPHONE LABS COOP
Worker Cooperative
A worker-owned cooperative based in Saint Paul, building democratic infrastructure for independent game development and digital projects.
◉ IN DEVELOPMENT⚖
REAGAN DETECTED
Flask Web Application
A rating platform evaluating video games based on their labor practices. Transparency tools for ethical consumption.
○ IN DEVELOPMENT◎
LATENT TRUTHS
Decentralized Application
NFT minting for organizational principle generation using $BREAD payments on Gnosis Chain. Encoded values, on-chain.
○ IN DEVELOPMENT☠
TTT: BACK IN SESSION
Game Mode Rework
A modernized rework of the classic Trouble in Terrorist Town game mode from Garry's Mod. Trust no one.
○ IN DEVELOPMENTVII. THE COMMUNION
This project exists outside the walled gardens. We gather in open protocols and humble servers, building cathedrals in the margins of the web.
IX. THE PORTAL
Beyond this threshold lies the inner sanctum. The authenticated realm where initiates gather, share, and build.
Only those with credentials may pass. Seek the gatekeeper if you wish to join the congregation.