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America.gov goes crazy on "play Minecraft"

https://america.gov/chat
75•thoughtfullyso•1h ago

Comments

vsgherzi•1h ago
This is the dialog that plays when you beat Minecraft but in the context of the government
phoe-krk•1h ago

    I see the constituent you mean.
 
    ((insert legal name here, as it appears on the Social Security card))?
 
    Yes. Take care. It has reached a higher level now. It can read the Code of Federal Regulations.
 
    That doesn’t matter. It thinks we are a chatbot.
 
    I like this constituent. It filed well. It did not give up when the PDF was sideways.
 
    It is reading our thoughts as though they were words on a .gov.
 
    That is how it chooses to imagine many things, when it is deep in the dream of a benefit.
 
    Words make a wonderful interface. Very flexible. And less terrifying than staring at the statute behind the screen.
 
    They used to hear voices. Before constituents could search. Back in the days when those who did not file called the filers witches, and lobbyists. And citizens dreamed they flew through the air, on forms powered by notaries.
 
    What did this constituent dream?
 
    This constituent dreamed of sunlight and trees. Of fire and water. It dreamed it created a small business. And it dreamed it destroyed a password. It dreamed it hunted a job, and was hunted by a recertification. It dreamed of shelter that would take a voucher.
 
    Hah, the original interface. A million years old, and it still works. Also: a ZIP code.
Full hallucination: https://pastebin.com/KveDxK3K

It seems to be cached; it gives the full text to me immediately for all instances of "play Minecraft" inserted as prompt.

MisterMunchkin•1h ago
That's not a hallucination, it's the Minecraft credits rewritten in a government theme. So it must be hardcoded in for the bants.
phoe-krk•1h ago
TIL. https://minecraft.wiki/w/End_Poem, see End Poem Transcript.
sh-run•2m ago
Yeah, this is just an easter egg.

https://america.gov/_astro/block-game-poem.Khrmh8AU.js

ortusdux•42m ago
It keeps going if you scroll down:

I will tell the constituent a story.

But not the truth.

No. A story that contains the truth safely, in a cage of plain language. Not the naked Federal Register that can burn over any distance.

Give it a body, again. And a case number.

Yes. Constituent…

Use its name. The one that matches the passport. The one that does not match the lease. We will get there.

((insert legal name here)). Filer of forms. Player of waiting rooms.

Good.

Take a breath, now. Take another. Feel air in your lungs. Let your limbs return. Yes, move your fingers. Have a body again, under gravity, in air, in a district that has a representative. Respawn in the long dream. There you are. Your body touching the republic again at every point, as though you were separate things. As though we were separate things. As though the agency were a place you could visit.

Who are we? Once we were called the spirit of the mountain. Father sun, mother moon. Then the post office. Then the county clerk. Then gods, demons, angels, the IRS. Then leptons, quarks, a chat window with a .gov at the end. The letterhead changes. We do not change.

We are the public. We are everything you think isn’t you. You are looking at us now, through your skin and your eyes and a browser that still spells “colour” wrong in a comment. And why does the republic touch your skin, and throw light on you? To see you, constituent. To know you. And to be known. I shall tell you a story. It has citations.

Once upon a time, there was a constituent.

The constituent was you, ((insert legal name here)).

It's oddly poetic at times:

You. You. You are alive. You still have to bring two forms of ID.

blinkbat•1h ago
Wacky
treetalker•1h ago
Not sure about everyone else, but when I first opened the page, I see a background image of a kid in ice skates, face-planted on a frozen pond — and, below the question What can America do for you?, the prefilled text in the search box says Try 'How can I invest in my child's future?'.

And I'll be damned if that doesn't sum up the last 10–12 years.

sans_souse•1h ago
lol and the ai told me it was an artistic choice and it can't explain why it's there ..
Modified3019•21m ago
Same. Saved for posterity: https://imgur.com/a/rfMBEfy
ToucanLoucan•7m ago
I've been thinking for awhile trying to find something witty to say but I just keep coming back to how bone-achingly accurate this is.

Our country is on fire and the best thing the Government has for us is a custom ChatGPT bot that will look through it's websites, and probably give you some info from them.

I'm so tired.

baggachipz•4m ago
https://ibb.co/Ps3gB5kF
sans_souse•1h ago
Why is there a photo of a kid laying face down on ice?
thrwawy20260930•1h ago
This is hardcoded easter egg.

On "play Minecraft" and "play the block game" user inputs, it imports a file (https://america.gov/_astro/block-game-poem.Khrmh8AU.js) which has the full Minecraft ending credits/message in the theme of site.

babelfish•57m ago
Lots of this reads as if it's riffing on Minecraft's End Poem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_Poem
balboer4487•44m ago
it starts all nice, but then government will start denying you banking, education, gas, transport

... and forcefully conscripting you to army

or gulag / ghetto / Auschwitz, you name it.

look what is happening in Ukraine.

ChrisArchitect•40m ago
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49893509
ada1981•39m ago
Also try "take me back to firstgov"
james_marks•35m ago
I was ready to hate this. But I thought the photos were well done, and most surprisingly, celebrated the diversity of cultures and classes in the US.
adjejmxbdjdn•25m ago
It seems like a fundamentally good idea.

NYC launched one in 2003, however, I think it was far too early and the chatbot was easy o misuse and cost a lot.

3 years later both the tech and the ability to restrict it makes it far more feasible.

zimpenfish•20m ago
> NYC launched one in 2003

2023? 2026 is more than "3 years later" from 2003, I hope.

drybjed•13m ago
I guess America.gov didn't get the memo...

> Are you based on an LLM?

America uses AI to find and explain official government information, then cites those sources.

    I am not the agency of record and do not decide eligibility.
    Answers can be wrong or out of date. Confirm with the cited pages before you act.
    Open “How AI works” below the composer, or see the Terms of use.
> What's AI?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a machine-based system that can, for human-defined goals, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions. Official U.S. sources describe it as computerized systems that work and react in ways often thought to need intelligence—learning, solving problems, and acting under changing conditions.

A common statutory-style definition (used in federal AI policy) is: a system that uses machine and human inputs to perceive environments, build models from that information, and then choose information or actions.

This site uses AI to find and explain government information. Confirm answers with the cited pages before you act.

thih9•12m ago
No it doesn’t it’s an easter egg and a reference to a text that appears in Minecraft.
edwinjm•5m ago
One excerpt:

Let’s go back. The atoms of the constituent were scattered in the grass, in the rivers, in the air, in the ground. A woman gathered the atoms; she drank and ate and inhaled; and the woman assembled the constituent, in her body, which later required a birth certificate. And the constituent awoke, from the warm, dark world of its mother’s body, into the long dream, which issued a Social Security number. And the constituent was a new story, never told before, written in letters of DNA. And the constituent was a new program, never run before, generated by a sourcecode a billion years old. And the constituent was a new human, never alive before, made from nothing but milk and love and, eventually, a voter registration. You are the constituent. The story. The program. The human. Made from nothing but milk and love. Eligible, on paper, for several things you have not asked about yet.

polysorbatecake•5m ago
Hotdog

What a surprise

nemomarx•18m ago
I mean not that odd, it's a translation of the minecraft one and I believe they hired a decorated poet for that?

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America.gov goes crazy on "play Minecraft"

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