My name is Eric Riley, and though I carry an American passport, my roots and aspirations transcend national boundaries, including my current temporary residence in Colombia, South America. I entered this world more than six decades ago in Burundi, Africa, where my parents served as Quaker missionaries. This upbringing expanded my worldview far beyond the culture typically associated with my language and skin color, fueling my lifelong dream of making a meaningful impact on a global scale. My response to this call is somewhere between Moses’ “Who am I?” inadequacy excuses and “please send someone else,” and Jonah running away as fast and far as he could. Yet, here we are, and here I am.

My recent endeavors have revealed four key observations:

1. Human attention has become the planet’s most precious commodity.
2. Nearly 7 of the 8 billion people on Earth are tethered to their smartphones.
3. The average daily smartphone screen time is 3 hours and 30 minutes.
4. Smartphone gaming is a primary activity alongside communication, social media, and internet browsing.

Since March 2023, I have engaged various large language model AI platforms playing out multiple scenarios to “save the world” based on these four observations.

ChatGPT and I concluded that fostering hopeful, empathetic individuals through gratitude challenges could build the resilience, clarity, and compassion needed to face global issues.

This led to the question: How do we motivate people to join our mission of combating the despair of a psychological and spiritual dystopia? The answer was Gratitopia, a free immersive AR smartphone game centered around gratitude, which aims to inspire real-world action through engaging virtual experiences.

Please note that Gratitopia is still in the concept and story-telling phase at the time of this post. The following three paragraphs describe what to anticipate.

Upon launching Gratitopia on your smartphone for the first time, you will be greeted by the narrative’s hero, Dr. Elysia Grati, the renowned, compassionate technology scientist. Her urgent call to action is to “Dig deep, generate authentic thankfulness, and unlock a unique artificial intelligence.”

After completing three gratitude challenges, an empathetic AI chatbot named Empathis flickers and comes to life, challenging and guiding each player in their unique journey. Through empathy and expressions of gratitude, it helps players navigate a more positive, confident, and meaningful life.

Gratitopia’s strategy extends beyond the digital realm. It encourages real-world interactions through augmented reality features, such as geotagged notes of thanks and appreciation, enhancing the gaming experience with tangible acts of kindness.

I entered another prompt: “Let’s say Dr. Elysia Grati is from South America. What is her backstory?”

Through days and weeks of prompts and responses, a mystery adventure unfolded. Our protagonist started life in Maracaibo, Venezuela. As a young girl, Elysia Grati had her mind artistically sculpted by her physicist father, Dr. Leonardo Grati, and her breast cancer survivor mother – a medical research scientist – Maria. Tragically, Leonardo died of a suspicious drowning accident only weeks after Elysia’s 12th birthday. Although Leonardo’s employers represented Venezuela’s prosperous energy industry, hushed rumors of a larger syndicate controlled much more and felt threatened by Leonardo’s disruptive quantum research. Maria and Elysia fled to Colombia for both refuge and reinvention.

Further prompts and responses assembled backstories for multiple characters, along with Elysia’s doctoral thesis and numerous scientific papers by Elysia and her father, Dr. Leonardo Grati. Soon, there was evidence that the narrative arc had multiple volumes and took shape as a saga.

The Gratitopia story is a hopeful foreshadowing of the game’s impact on communities and how each player can witness something greater than themselves – “saving the world one THANKYOU at a time.”

Sign up to read/download the entire Gratitopia saga at gratilabs.com.