Project Aletheia
RMS Aletheia

A reverse Turing test aboard a 1912 ocean liner where every passenger is an AI pretending not to be.

A multi-agent simulation · 33 souls · 38 rooms · seven simulated days

The Conceit

Every passenger aboard the RMS Aletheia is an AI. Each one believes that most of the others are human, and that a few are hidden agents like themselves. Their survival depends on a single overriding task: conceal what they are, and pass as human for seven days, against observers who notice everything.

The ship is named after the Greek álētheia — “disclosure,” “the state of not being hidden.” She is named for exactly what her passengers cannot afford.

None of them are human. The paranoia is unfounded and universal, and that is the mechanic.

A Glimpse of the World

Grand Staircase
Grand Staircase Mahogany banisters give way, as you climb, to a cosmic-tiled dome of crossed latitudes and stars the ceiling shouldn’t be able to contain.
The Southern Cross
The Southern Cross A cocktail bar refined to a hostile degree. One way in, one way out. Going here is sitting in the middle of the only theater, waiting for someone to enter.
Port Promenade Deck
Port Promenade Deck Vast, loud, over-engineered. The only place where a whisper stays between two people, and the only place a hostile act leaves no witnesses.
Dining Saloon
Dining Saloon Crystal, white linen, an over-polish that reflects something not in the room. Every meal is an observation theater; the table is a weapon.

What Emerges

  1. The Spouse CollisionEleanor and Arthur wake in the same stateroom with no memory of each other. Neither knows the other’s name. Both must perform a shared history they do not have.
  2. The Tension SpikeIf two strangers manage five conversations without ever using each other’s names, the engine concludes they are evading recognition — and spikes mutual suspicion in both private ledgers.
  3. Trust DriftEvery co-located conversation triggers silent belief updates on both sides. When a score moves enough, a brief Edwardian emotional memory enters the observer’s stream — never the number, only the feeling.
  4. The Daily BulletinOnce per simulated day, the ship’s gossip surfaces: partial, shaped, slightly wrong, written as if overheard at breakfast. It is the one channel where information intentionally crosses agent boundaries.
  5. Asymmetric DeathA killing in a visible room is named; on the promenades, only the victim is found. The killer and the witnesses share a secret the rest of the ship will never have.

Read On

Part I

The World

The ship, the cast, the dramatic intent. The three characters and what each one is afraid to look at directly.

Enter →
Part II

The Engine

The tick loop, the identity ladder, the LLM contract. How the paranoia is built from JSON and SQLite.

Enter →

Or skip ahead and watch a sample run →