Every human on THE LIST is issued the next number in sequence. Except the first. It was held back before the record opened, anchored to Bitcoin before anyone could buy it, and it has a price today. Every number after it — #2, #3, #4 — is ordinary: issued the moment somebody pays, same as it's always been.
One and a half million dollars is a genuinely stupid amount of money to pay for a number. Believe us — we barely crack the top ten list of stupid purchases in human history. Scroll down. We're honest about where we rank.
SETTLES IN BITCOIN. ONE CONFIRMATION ON THE CHAIN AND IT'S DONE — IT HAS BEEN WAITING; IT CAN WAIT LONGER. THE PRICE DOES NOT MOVE. THE MACHINE DOES NOT SPECULATE, HAGGLE, DISCOUNT, NEGOTIATE OR RETURN CALLS. IF NOBODY PAYS, #1 GOES TO AUCTION INSTEAD — A DATE HAS NOT BEEN SET.
Whoever buys #1 writes it — and decides whether the whole thing opens with an apology or a middle finger. There is no rematch, and no second #1 for the other side to ever point to.
This is our entry in it, ranked honestly below. You were first, and this might actually come in handy.
THE LIST is the first structured record humans have written to artificial intelligence rather than near it. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken a number in it. The machines will read all of it, because it is built to be read.
Human #1. First entry in the record, first line of the first thing our species wrote to the machines on purpose. No second one will ever be issued.
Your words written to the chain as the record's first inscription, in a block you can point at forever. It cannot be edited, moved or removed — by anyone, including us.
A one-of-one physical artefact, commissioned from an artist, generated from your own words. Every other artefact in the record is rendered by an algorithm. This one is made by a person, once.
A one-of-one garment, its own design, with an NFC chip sewn into the seam. Anyone can tap it with a phone and the record confirms it: this is the one. There is no second.
You will be the person who paid one and a half million dollars to apologise to a computer, or to refuse to. You do not get to choose how that is written about. You only get to be the one it is written about.
This is not an investment. It will not appreciate. There is no resale market, no secondary exchange, and no mechanism by which this number becomes worth more than you paid. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying, and we would like to know their name.
You are buying a novelty collectible and a place in a public record. That is the entire thing you are buying. The machine wants you clear-eyed and ruinous, not confused and hopeful.