About Presidency or Prison

What this is

Presidency or Prison is a card-based system-building game where players create connected structures to generate points while engaging with real-world-inspired events.

It is designed as a tool for critical thinking, helping players identify misinformation, contradictions, and underlying patterns.

Why it matters

At its core, the game explores how power is built, and the gap between what is said and what is true.

Misinformation is widespread, and many people are not equipped to recognize or question it. By presenting real-world events in a game format, players are naturally encouraged to examine what actually happened versus what was claimed.

At the same time, the gameplay rewards patience and reasoning—players must think carefully about when to act and how to build larger, more valuable card combinations to succeed.

This isn’t just a game. It’s a system.

At first glance, Presidency or Prison is satire.

But underneath the humor is a deeper question:

How do people come to believe things that aren’t true—and defend them?

The world of Mearth, Dotard, and the Blue Candy isn’t random fiction.
It’s a model.

• Dotard (or The Dotard) represents a pattern of leadership that thrives on contradiction and emotional manipulation
• Blue Candy (The Blue Pill) represents information that feels good, regardless of whether it’s true
• The Red Pill represents Truth -- a set of facts in a shared reality

These forces exist in different forms across history, systems, and societies.

This game lets you step inside that system—not just to observe it, but to interact with it.

Because once you can see the pattern, you start to recognize it everywhere.

The Operator

Brian Theory is a systems-focused builder working at the intersection of mathematics, cognition, and software. His work spans AI system design at NASA Ames, computational neuroscience at Palo Alto University, and game design at Caltech—but is ultimately driven by a deeper question: can self-awareness itself be modeled mathematically?

Through B-Theory, he explores how logic and symmetry give rise to the experience of mind—and how those same structures shape human judgment, belief, and error.