Embrace your innie with this Macrodata Refinement program from "Severance"

At Lumon Industries, numbers don't just represent data — they trigger emotional responses in the workers who sort them. The company's Macrodata Refinement (MDR) program tasks employees with organizing arrays of numbers based on the feelings they evoke.

Workers face "a sea of numbers that seems to stretch endlessly in all directions," according to Lumon's internal documentation. Their job? Identify and sort number clusters into four distinct emotional categories: WO (melancholy), FC (joy), DR (fear), and MA (rage).

"Over time, certain clusters of numbers will start to make you feel a certain way," explains the company's onboarding materials. Workers must distribute these emotionally-charged number sequences evenly across five bins until reaching 100% refinement. The work requires a delicate balance of technical precision and emotional intelligence.

Lumon, which began as "a small topical salve company" has become "the world's leading pioneer in biotechnologies." The Macrodata Refinement program suggests the company is pushing boundaries in how humans interact with and process information.

"All of us are thrilled you've become a part of Lumon Industries," reads the welcoming message to new refiners. But given the emotional labor involved in sorting numbers by their capacity to trigger joy or despair, one has to wonder what being "part of the Lumon family" truly entails.

This simulation of the MDR system featured in Severance was created by Daniel Shiffman (The Coding Train).

Previously:
Severance Season 2 officially revealed
Severance-style keycaps fit for some macrodata refinement
Severance but with the theme from The Office (US)