Facilitator kit · 75–90 minutes
Essential
Who gets protected. The markets didn't crash. Nobody went looking. Outside, the protest line has marked the study deadline. Inside, the Commissioner starts making their case better than they can.
Good for: Policy groups, civic tech, leadership teams, university seminars, protest-curious book clubs
How to run it
- Read the Wellington cold-open, then the sunset clause (s. 41) aloud from the Archive.
- Split the room: renewal vs. sunset for 15 minutes — no phones, no dashboards.
- End with one personal commitment: a system you depend on, and the named human who still understands it.
Discussion questions
- Rob clicks approve every day on systems he privately knows nobody understands. Is that governance or ceremony?
- Section 41 puts an expiry date on the last law that requires a person to care. Should oversight laws sunset?
- Saunders wants more teeth; Carriere wants the Act dead. Whose constituents are you closer to — and why?
- "The comfort is the leash." What comforts in your life depend on systems you could not restart?
- Wren's four points (participation credits, displacement accounts, stewardship, automation limits) — which one would your group actually vote for?
- When Rob argues the protesters' case too well, the wrong people nod. Have you ever won an argument you didn't want to win?
- Who is "essential" in your workplace — and who decided that category?
- If turning the machines off would be a kind of murder, what kind of murder is leaving them on without comprehension?