#qwand

MAF+SF (from team Edgebits) won the ‘best provocation award‘ at DIS2017 for the *genius* design of the Quantum Wand (Qwand) Problem Space Machine. A few lucky DIS-goers had the opportunity to wave the Qwand at their innermost beliefs. The dynamic duo did so by asking each participant (n=13) to:  

Think of a fact or notion they truly believe is true - Suspended Truth (ST);

Write the ST on a Quantum Particle (QP), which, for the sake of this experiment, has been stretched to a ping-pong ball size;

Hold the truth with the Qwand as one would hold an egg with a spoon;

Make sure that the Green Probability Field (GPF) is green indeed and magnetically soft; i.e. the quantum robins on the GPF must all point at the Magnetic North.

Throw the truth at one of the ten Multiverse Tunnels (MuTu) - the red vessels in the picture above.

=> If the particle enters one of the MuTus, the truth probability score is equal to the number written at the bottom of the MuTu (from 1 to 10); else the truth is Pure Fiction (+/- )

EMERGING FINDINGS

We used a thematic analysis approach to extract emerging patterns from the reported STs; the analysis has been carried out by MAF alone to make it absolutely clear that the process is utterly unscientific; by doing so, we have identified  four ST categories: Mega – for Greater Truths; Scientific – for falsifiable truths; Existential – for personal truths; Political – for civic matters.The probability scores range from 0 (Perfect Lie) to 10 (Perfect Truth). The results are summarised in the table above and briefly discussed below.

Mega was by far the most popular category (38% of STs); followed by Political (31%), and Existential (24%). Only 7% of our participants were bothered with Scientific truths, and quite frankly the results were inconclusive (”Fat Chance” for Evolution). Crucially, Truth got a whopping 10 score, hence it can be confidently said that Truth is Truth. As suspected, Love scores only slightly better than “Fat Chance”, whereas the birthday of one of our participants must have been an anagraphic mistake (3.0 = Alternative Fact). The Labour Manifesto scored a comfortable 7.0, whereas Corbyn Galactic Emperor got a strong and stable 8.0, leaving Unbrexit in a grey area with a 6.0; Finally the Future, I am afraid, is “Pure Fiction” and so are Matt and Jim’s PhDs (*in full accordance to our rigorous ethics review process, participants’ names have been pseudonymised).

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS