Rules and Consequences

"THESE RULES ARE ABSOLUTE AND WILL ALWAYS HAVE BEEN TRUE FOR EVERYONE ELSE."

That sentence was the only thing that appeared on the otherwise empty screen when he started up the app. It had weirdly appeared on his phone this morning. He had no idea what it was, he didn't download it himself. He thought it would maybe be a systems upgrade or settings app of the phone because it simply said "Absolute Rules" as the title of the app. He clicked on the empty screen and his keyboard appeared. Did that mean he could write things?

What also appeared was the first position of a numbering system. "1.".

In his confusion he tried to type something that he knew from his limited programming skills.

1. /info

Nothing happened. So he tried something else.

1. /help

Now, a pop-up appeared. It read:

"USER ROBERT LAURENT, PLEASE TYPE IN FULL SENTENCES SO AN ABSOLUTE RULE CAN BE FORMED."

Rob raised an eyebrow. What the hell was an absolute rule? He'd almost just closed the app and deinstalled it, but the fact that it knew his information without him agreeing to anything made it seem that it was actually part of the recent systems update of his phone. He tried again, forming a full sentence this time:

1. Show instructions on how to use this app.

He confirmed and the first line of text appeared at the top of his screen. When he read it he realized that it wasn't what he typed. Instead, it read:

"1. THE APP "ABSOLUTE RULES" ALWAYS SHOWS INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO USE IT."

Next to this first line a small symbol appeared with the typical information "i" symbol. Rob was very confused, but at this point he was actually fairly interested in this weird app, so he clicked the symbol. A pop-up appeared.

"INSTRUCTIONS FOR USER ROBERT LAURENT: WRITE WHAT YOU THINK IS OR SHOULD BE TRUE FOR EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING WITH THE EXCEPTION OF YOURSELF."

Rob was incredibly confused. This didn't really seem like a system or settings app anymore. Was it a puzzle game?
His curiosity was now fully engaged. He no longer paid attention to the TV in front of him, but instead focused fully on the app. How could he figure out what the game wanted from him?

"Maybe I can cheat the system? I could write what I think should be true..." he thought.
Trying to gain more knowledge, he wrote a second sentence.

2. I know what I need to write next.

Another pop up appeared: "ERROR: USER ROBERT LAURENT IS EXCEMPT FROM THE RULES. THE USER ROBERT LAURENT CAN'T CREATE RULES TARGETING USER ROBERT LAURENT DIRECTLY. RULES MUST OTHERWISE BE ABSOLUTE."

Damn, this thing had some constraints, but he'd always liked puzzle games that don't show you the right answer immediately. He began thinking.

If the app wanted him to write rules that were true for everyone else except him then there must be something to that fact that would lead to the solution. „Hm. A rule that should be true for everyone else except me... but who else? Other users maybe? Is it a multiplayer game?" Rob was invested now.
He smiled and wrote:

2. All users send me all information they have about this app.

Another pop up appeared: "ERROR: USER ROBERT LAURENT IS EXCEMPT FROM THE RULES. THE USER ROBERT LAURENT CAN'T CREATE RULES TARGETING USER ROBERT LAURENT DIRECTLY. RULES MUST OTHERWISE BE ABSOLUTE."

Was he really the only player? Robert was beginning to get annoyed, but he wasn't one to give up easily. Maybe asking for the solution was not what the app wanted. Maybe he simply needed to experiment. He decided to write a basic rule that could give him the platform he needed to get to the solution. Maybe it was one of those games that you have to somewhat create and uncover yourself. So that meant he needed to gain more information by using the only function the game had given to him: Writing rules.

He typed a sentence which he hoped would give him a good baseline, one that would make the app confirm to him everytime a new rule was created. So he wrote:

2. Whenever a successful rule is written, a green light will flash at the top of the screen.

The text appeared underneath the first rule, but once again the app had changed the wording. It now listed the rules like this:

1. THE APP "ABSOLUTE RULES" ALWAYS SHOWS INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO USE IT.
2. WHENEVER AN ABSOLUTE RULE TAKES EFFECT, A GREEN LIGHT FLASHES AT THE TOP RIGHT CORNER OF THE SCREEN.

Rob also noticed that indeed, a green light flashed in the top right corner.
"Holy shit that's incredible. How is that possible? How does the app know to make a green light? Maybe that's why the app rewords the sentences to have more general wording." Robert said out loud. This success made him very invested. The whole mystery around this app was intruiging to him. "How far can I go with this? What can I make real?" Rob thought excitedly. He still had no idea what this game wanted from him or what the goal of the game was. He decided to test out if the app had any more information about him, the user.

3. Whenever a successful rule is written, all users are notified with an email.

Again, a pop up appeared: "ERROR: USER ROBERT LAURENT IS EXCEMPT FROM THE RULES. THE USER ROBERT LAURENT CAN'T CREATE RULES TARGETING USER ROBERT LAURENT DIRECTLY. RULES MUST OTHERWISE BE ABSOLUTE."

Rob cursed out loud. "Fuck! How can I learn anyhting about the game if I can't target myself for information! Damn." Rob was getting annoyed. He definitely wasn't going to give up, but just to relieve some frustration he typed: