Big Data vs Holistic Mind-Reading

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Here is a presentation I’ve been enjoying the past few weeks. It combines a couple different ideas I’ve already written about separately, but they work so damn well together.

Here’s what it looks like.

I ask my friend to write a word down on the back of a business card.

“I don’t want to see what you wrote down just yet, but I’ll need it later.” I put the card in my wallet without looking at it, and put the wallet in my pocket.

“I’m collecting these for a project I’m involved in.”

I tell them about this grassroots research project that I’m a part of where we’re trying to build up an understanding of the words people think of by going out and talking to real people and having them think of any word and write it down.

I bring up a website on their phone for them to look at which consists of a bunch of different words written on business cards.

“I’ll turn away. You scroll to any word you like. And read the information for who wrote down that word. I’m going to try and pick up on some details about the person you’re thinking of and the word you’re thinking of.”

After a few moments of concentration I reveal that I think it’s a male, under 40. I’m right.

Once that’s confirmed I guess that the word they’re thinking of is “Mischief.” Again, that proves to be right.

I then give them a few more details about the project.

“Mind-reading is, of course, mostly nonsense. In the past decade or so there have been some attempts to use Big Data to allow you to fake mind reading by combining a bunch of databases and demographic information to know the types of things people will think of. It’s kind of shady, in my opinion. And other people who are interested in magic feel the same way.

“So in the past couple years an alternate group has sprung up, which I’m a part of. And we’re trying to find ways to mimic mind-reading, but in an organic way. A more human way. By actually going out and talking to real people in the real world, and actually learning about the way people think. Rather than just scrubbing some bullshit database.

“It’s going to take us a long time. There are only a few dozen of us. And we send in the words people have thought of every now and again and the guy who is running the project uploads them to that site. Then we try and have some meet-ups or zoom meetings to really drill down on the information we’re learning about what types of people are thinking of what types of things. But it takes a long time to really build up a ‘vocabulary’ of mind-reading in this natural way. A lot of people think we’re, like, hippies or something. But we’re just trying to do something that connects us to people rather than just meaningless data. Even if the ‘data’ way is much easier.”

I then demonstrate the Big Data method of “mind-reading” by bringing up a site on the “Dark Web Browser” on my phone. The site takes some basic demographic information from them and spits out the words they’re likely to think about. At the top of the list is the word they wrote down on the card that “no one has ever seen.”

“That’s your word? Yeah… see… it works. but it’s just soulless. You know?”

Method

Just combine these things

  • A peek wallet.

  • The Xeno app

  • The Word Transmission Project site mentioned in this post

  • This feature of the Jerx App which mimics searching databases on the dark web to determine the words people are likely to think of.

BTW, reader Carl F. has kindly purchased the domain word transmission . com (remove the spaces, of course) and directed it to the Xeno site above, so now you can get the person to the site much more easily.

I personally don’t mind using the more convoluted URL as mentioned in the original post, since it’s not supposed to be a site that’s necessarily “easy” to get to. But now you have the option. Thanks, Carl.