An Atoll Society gaming salon
State of exception
We do not play to win. We play to map the future.
State of Exception is more than a simulation; it is an epistemic machine. It is a high-fidelity stress test for the rule of law, the nature of shared truth, and the institutional systems that make civilization possible.
Designed for policymakers, journalists, legal scholars, technologists, business executives, operatives, civic leaders, faculty, and students, the Salon places participants in a "State of Exception"—a moment when norms have collapsed, and the standard playbook no longer applies. It forces incompatible worldviews into sustained collision to explore a single, urgent question:
When the guardrails fail, how does authority actually move—and who, in practice, decides what happens next?
The architecture of prediction
Most political simulations fail because they rely on hindsight or shared assumptions.
State of Exception is built on a different premise: in moments of crisis, old paradigms do not just fail; they are replaced by ruthless new logics.
Recent global volatility has shown that what was once considered "unthinkable" is now the new baseline. The simulation has successfully anticipated these shifts because it does not model politics; it models epistemology—how different factions perceive truth, violence, and power.
To understand what to do next, you cannot simply read a white paper. You must play the simulation.
A flight simulator for leadership
We are currently in a moment of civilizational transformation.
The tools and assumptions that governed for decades are insufficient today. The Salon offers a distinct strategic advantage for three critical groups:
For Business Leaders:
Pricing Systemic Risk
Markets are ruthless epistemologists. They price enforcement failure before political actors say it out loud.
The Challenge: Standard enterprise risk management assumes a stable rule of law. It fails to account for "regime uncertainty"—when the fundamental rules of the market are being rewritten in real-time.
The Value: The Salon allows executives and boards to simulate the friction between capital, coercion, and legitimacy. It reveals how markets respond when "safety" and "profit" become competing priorities, helping leaders distinguish signal from noise as they navigate high-stakes instability.
For Policymakers & Politicians:
Governing Through Rupture
In a time of shifting norms, the greatest danger is the "trap of local optimization"—making short-term moves that make sense individually and in the near-term, but lead to collective disaster.
The Challenge: Elected officials are often trapped in reactive cycles, responding to today’s outrage rather than the underlying structural shifts.
The Value: This is a safe-to-fail environment for testing governance strategies under extreme pressure. It allows leaders to see beyond the immediate news cycle and understand the mechanics of power—how coalitions hold, how authority is lost, and how to avoid the path of least resistance that leads to institutional collapse.
For Students & The Next Generation:
Shaping the Future
Today's students will inherit the systems that are breaking—or being rebuilt—in this very moment.
The Challenge: Emerging leaders are often taught theories that assume world orders and political dynamics that no longer exist.
The Value: By stepping into the simulation, university students move from passive observation to active construction. They learn that the future is not something that happens to them; it is shaped by choices, incentives, and the courage to understand how power actually functions.
The engine
A computational constitution
At the core of the experience is a proprietary Game Engine structured around six incompatible epistemic logics, or "Constructs."
In the Construct Codex, these logics are defined by specific rules and numbers. They do not reach a consensus. They erode, reinforce, and distort one another in response to player actions.
1
Fugger (Capital):
Money has no flag. It flows toward safety first, and returns second.
2
Vyshinsky (Enforcement):
Repression works best when it is legal, selective, and deniable.
3
Havel (Coordination):
The system survives only so long as everyone believes everyone else still believes.
4
Hamilton (Legitimacy):
Enforcement capacity is a prerequisite of law. Institutions must be defended to exist.
5
Goebbels (Propaganda):
Facts are downstream of story. Control the narrative, and reality follows.
6
Kong Qiu (Ritual):
Virtue must be performed to be known. Ritual is the technology that makes power visible.
The experience
Adversarial intelligence
Participants are not neutral observers. You are supported by a Handler—an AI-driven interface that helps you inhabit the internal logic of your faction, including its blind spots.
Handlers act as docents for your specific worldview. They do not optimize for truth, morality, or stability. They operate strictly within their Construct's epistemology. The result is a disciplined encounter with constraint: what becomes impossible, unavoidable, or self-defeating once a particular logic dominates?
Coordination is a superpower.
Authoritarian consolidation is not inevitable, but it feeds on fragmentation.
Capital is rational, not moral.
In the simulation, the Capitalist faction is not monolithic: it divides into Regime-Adjacent actors, Hedgers, and Resisters, each with distinct incentives.
Ambiguity is a weapon.
Authoritarians preserve confusion to prevent opposition from establishing common knowledge.
Situation beats character.
Systems shape behavior more reliably than virtue.
Format and engagement
The Atoll Society is currently scheduling State of Exception Salons for the Q1 2026 season.
Format:
Duration: 3–6 hours
Roles: Three factions (Nationalist, Institutionalist, Capitalist)
Capacity: 12–30 participants
Output: Each Salon concludes with a Chatham House Rules debrief and a strategic foresight memorandum synthesizing key dynamics and emerging risks.