Octet

Human exceptionalism is the belief that we, humans, exist independently of the ecosystems we live in. It is a learned cultural phenomenon—simply coming up with scientific solutions to systemic issues does not address the underlying cognitive processes that lead to apathy for the greater community and future generations. How can we adjust these hyper-individualist worldviews to inspire greater empathy for a larger group we can’t immediately communicate with, and increase concern for larger issues that don’t affect our immediate lives?

We developed Octet, a multiplayer, immersive sensory game experience where collective-based thinking is rewarded and the social/environmental consequences of individualism are shared. Inspired by the distributed intelligence of an octopus's tentacles, players are linked sensorially with a modified TENS device to induce a visceral sensation of interconnectedness. By increasing the stimulation voltage according to the game outcomes, we transform this connection into social responsibility and encourage collective-driven decision making.

Octet was chosen to represent the University of Texas at Austin as a finalist at the Biodesign Challenge 2025, held at Parsons and MoMA. Octet also showcased at TABOO-TRANSGRESSION-TRANSCENDENCE 2025 in Ljubljana.

Although there are benefits to humanity's individualistic drives and separate consciousnesses, we stand to gain from studying the benefits of more collective species like passerine birds or fish, or species with distributed intelligence like octopi.

We developed Octet, a multiplayer, immersive sensory game experience where collective-based thinking is rewarded and the social/environmental consequences of individualism are shared. By linking players to a nerve stimulation device that increases voltage according to the game outcome, we induce a visceral feeling of connection and responsibility and encourage collective-driven decision making.

Octet takes place in a speculative future Earth where human greed and overconsumption have led to ecological collapse and the decline of human civilization. In order to survive, humans have been placed in experimental groups called Octets where 8 people are sensorially linked and must make decisions as a collective to navigate this new world. Each player can vote on scenarios independently, like whether to raid a Megacorp base for resources and risk other members' safety, or stay back and risk starvation. However, their overall success depends on collaboration.

The game follows a linear narrative: the series of scenarios creates a general arc. The exact scenarios/questions differ each time for replayability.

Players each have an individual score and the Octet has a collective score. The individual choices made in each scenario affect both scores. The objective is for all players to survive all scenarios, balancing self-interest with the good of the group by keeping their individual scores and the collective score above 0.

Point calculations take inspiration from the Prisoner's Dilemma. The selfish option is always the rational choice, but only the collective option will result in the greatest mutual benefit. This reflects real-world scenarios and models how we make selfish decisions despite awareness it is to the detriment of the group.

However, we chose not to make the decisions completely blind: players can move/wave their arms in octopus-like manners to indicate which choice they intend to select. This limited signaling between neighbors more accurately reflects the extent of communication in real-world decision making, where people act with awareness of the societal choices of their close circle.

‍The UI is kept minimal and clean, with a dark background to imitate the ocean's depths and lighter whites and blues for the interactive elements. Thin circles reminiscent of octopi suckers create a recurring motif.

The final game is browser-based and operates on a client-server model. My Python script manages the game logic and uses Flask and Socket.IO to communicate between devices. Client-side interfaces are HTML screens. We soldered wires to the button pads on the TENS so we could simulate button presses via Arduino. We sculpted a paper octopus-shaped housing unit to hide the circuitry.