Games + maintenance
- Players find AED, filter, and trail-marker nodes
- Maintainer-signed status stays separate from game points
- Fix verified → local map unlocks the next route
Design space
What can a QR do?
Once a mark points at live network status, not a frozen URL, the physical world becomes programmable.
The live product today is create → scan → revoke. Everything below is research and imagination built on that primitive.
Where this goes
Activity streams, not a social feed
Today a scan returns current object state - active, revoked, vouched, control proven. The longer arc is richer: one physical QR as a handle for multiple signed update channels controlled by different accountable keys.
- A game stream - faction holds, route windows, season lore
- A maintainer stream - repair notices, closures, safety pauses
- An artist or place stream - history, commentary, local canon
Season window Wake the city · 2026-06-06T18:00:00-05:00 → 2026-06-08T22:00:00-05:00 Read the rules and city board before scanning game nodes. Read the rules and the city state board before scanning game nodes. See the multiplayer walkthrough and Cedar Rapids demo for design reference.
Each stream has an owner and honest limits. Maintenance and safety truth wins when channels conflict. This is how benches, murals, and door plates become physical software objects with living history - without building another attention feed or scan-tracking graph.
Beyond use-case walkthroughs
The list below is scenario-by-scenario. The expanded design space names cross-cutting patterns — interaction verbs, blind spots, network grammar, technology pairings, and open questions. Research index, not shipping behavior.
Card vs QR
- Humanity Card One signed profile: handle, manifesto, verification. The container for trust state.
-
QR credential
One physical mark. Each sticker, wristband, or door plate gets its own
qr_id. Revoke one without killing the card or sibling QRs.
How the mark stores information
The QR is not a database. It encodes a short URL. The camera decodes the pattern; your phone opens the link; the network returns current signed status.
Encoded
URL in the squares
Printed
Ink on object
Camera
Decodes URL
Network
Status now
The squares never hold your manifesto or keys - only where to ask. Revoking changes the answer, not the ink.
Stop thinking of the QR as a link. Think of it as a persistent physical pointer, a distributed state object, and a tiny public storage primitive - then the design space opens.
Ideas on live QRs
- Expanded design space Blind spots, verbs, networks, tech combinations, open questions — full catalog
- Living street infrastructure A bench with public history, civic state, belonging, games - foundation for the city season in development
- Physical-world multiplayer The city as a playable map - in development for Cedar Rapids; full walkthrough
- Civic & protest infrastructure Live coordination on flyers - trusted instructions, revoke, full walkthrough
- Wearable legitimacy Live patches and wristbands - access, pseudonyms, revoke, full walkthrough
- Local economies Market passes, co-op membership, mutual-aid routing - full walkthrough
- Physical software objects Printing becomes deployment - stickers, cards, live endpoints, full walkthrough
- Memory & place Scan to hear what a place remembers - capsules, archives, full walkthrough
- Lost item relay Return keys and bags through a relay - no phone number on the sticker, full walkthrough
- Food freshness tags Made when, expires when, recall a batch - full walkthrough
- Live menus Sold-out, expires tonight, prove the real menu - full walkthrough
- Proof of maintenance AEDs, extinguishers, filters - last checked, out of service, full walkthrough
- Crisis resource cards Wallet cards that stay current when hotlines and hours change - full walkthrough
- Combining ideas Demo scan pages for stacked authority streams
Combining ideas
The strong patterns stack: one QR can stay a simple scan while the card behind it pulls from several signed, revocable streams.
Crisis cards + freshness
- Wallet aid card lists nearby pantry and fridge options
- Each food batch keeps made, expires, allergen, recall state
- Resource page updates without tracking who scanned
Markets + menus + surplus
- Co-op pass links to today’s stalls and live menus
- Prepared-food tags mark safe-to-take surplus
- Vendor updates one state object instead of reprinting
Cedar Rapids city game · in development
- Different nodes resolve to different relay and district chains
- Controlled nodes can broadcast team bulletins without scan trails
- Spy compromises surface as trust warnings, then clear on rekey
Best combos keep authority clear: the game can reward discovery, but only the maintainer signs safety; the crisis card can show food, but the kitchen signs freshness.