I was thinking about the easter egg in a video game. What is the easter egg? The easter egg is a hidden prize that you win by breaking the rules of the game in some way. You do not find the easter egg by following the rules, you find them by breaking the rules and this is the highest achievement in a game.

What does this say about rules, or about system based rules.

On second thought, is really about breaking rules, or breaking the system. It is about finding a contradiction in the system rather than breaking the rules. You use the rule to break the system. It is not the creation of a paradox, like travelling back in time and disrupting your parents meeting so you are never born. But it is about using the system against the system finding the limits of the system.

Kant was all about finding the limits of human thought. The division between what we can think about rationally and what is speculation or what is dogma.   And this leads to the transcendental deduction and categories of thought.

What about the limit of a system? What is the limit of a model, of a computer simulation, of a set? what is the internal logic of the system?  The easter egg is at or beyond that limit. So then is the easter egg in the system or outside the system?

Or are easter eggs just an aesthetic piece? An idiosyncratic piece  of the game designer’s desire fit into a system designed to hide the creator.