Sphinx

Two apposite remarks on the Twitter this morning. David Henig (@DavidHenigUK) noted the current Brexit paradox (which might easily be added to my ongoing collection of fragments of Zeno of Elea) that prospective Tory leadership candidates compete for the role of delivering Brexit by adopting positions that make it ever less likely that Brexit could actually be delivered; he’s responding to a thread by Simon Usherwood (@Usherwood) that includes the comment that “a more useful way to do this would be one of those fables, where the king sets the suitors a task in order to win the hand of the princess: results before reward”. For some reason this idea is then dismissed as impractical. Is it really?

Okay, it’s not as if we can let a bunch of drugged-up ideologues actually attempt to negotiate with the EU without any mandate (though it’s not as if there’s much the UK could do now to make everyone else take it any less seriously) – but this is where simple simulations come into their own. I have reluctantly concluded that it would not now be a good idea to let these people loose on my Melian Dilemma game, as the “let’s get everyone killed in the interests of personal power and wishful thinking” option is just too close to what they’re already offering. But the power of the Twine system is that it would be dead easy to build a simple ‘Choose Your Own Brexit Negotiation’ adventure.

Persist in seeking imaginative technology-based solutions to the Irish border? You end up in an endless loop and lose by default. Opt for the decisive “blow it all up” No Deal option? You immediately find yourself back in almost exactly the same game, seeking to negotiate a trade deal, only this time with the country collapsing around you. There’s no way of ‘winning’ – all you can do is try to find a way of not losing too badly – other than not to play in the first place. Anyone who actually realises this should get to be PM by default – but of course they’ll then be torn apart and eaten by rabid party members…