Ministry of Futility
The Ministry of Futility is a text-based adventure game designed as a serious play and action research probe into the lived experience of bureaucracy, inefficiency, and institutional absurdity.
I’m an action researcher and advisor working on human-AI collaboration, culture, ethics and trustworthiness. Over a decade with leaders and communities — from decentralised data protocols to open banking standards to AI ethics — has taught me that the most important work is often the hardest to see. I help organisations and communities make that work visible, and act on it.
From national infrastructure to community-led projects, I work with leaders to design for trustworthiness and govern wisely.
Organisations I've Worked With
Featured Work
A sampler from my portfolio and some experiments in storytelling, systems, and serious play.
Becoming Earthians
A transdisciplinary research programme investigating adaptive capacity in coupled human-technological-ecological systems, developing novel methods for sensing coherence dynamics under conditions of planetary-scale stress.
Adaptation Archetypes
An action research project using serious play to explore how people relate to systemic stress — reframing archetypal patterns as temporary postures with shadows, gifts, and pathways for transformative adaptation.
Testimonials
Collaborators reflecting on shared journeys.
“Before meeting Mat I had little appreciation of areas like data ethics or human centred design. Mat changed this. Tap into his thinking, you will benefit from it enourmously.”
“So many in this field get by with some good spiel and a superficial knowledge; scratch the surface and nothing is beneath. Mat is not one of those.”
“Exceptional understanding of responsible innovation, systems thinking, co-design and creativity, and the ability to work across both theoretical and practical spaces.”
“Generous and wise collaborator; he provided students at our USYD Master of Design innovation studio unit with critical guidance on their projects.”
“One of the most creative creatives I’ve ever had the joy of meeting and working with. Will leave long-lasting hallmarks in the way you see projects in your organization.”
“Ground-breaking work. The first time that the customer was truly in charge of their data that regulators were impressed and persuaded of the consumer benefits of the approach.”
Recent Writing
Article
Ghost GDP and the Anxiety Sensor
88 MBA case studies confirm what the AI industry is structurally incentivised to ignore: anxiety is a sensor, not friction. Eliminate it and you eliminate...
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What OpenClaw Gets Wrong Isn't Security
The security failures are solvable engineering problems. The deeper problem is that every personal AI assistant optimises for throughput while the human's nervous system is...
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Thinking With Seven Voices
Why talking to one AI might be limiting what we can think. An introduction to MASE—a tool for polyphonic dialogue and epistemic diversity.
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