The App of the Summer Is Just a Random-Number Generator (theatlantic.com) 57
Thelasko writes: Last year Slashdot reported on the Randonaut phenomenon. The Atlantic reports how a new app has spread the phenomenon further this summer From the report: Randonauting is also simple. You can do it using the free app Randonautica, which asks you for your location, prompts you to select one of a handful of different "entropy" generators -- which one you choose should not really matter -- and then asks you to focus your mind on your "intent." Then it spits out a set of coordinates that could, allegedly, be influenced by your mind interacting with the machine, or not, and you can choose to go there, or not, and submit a report of what you find, or not. (You can generate 10 sets of coordinates a day for free and pay to generate more.) The app's logo, fittingly, is an owl, because owls see in the dark; randonauts see what other people don't. In particular, they see what they otherwise wouldn't.
Wow (Score:3, Funny)
What a blatant money grab.
Idiots and their money...
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On the one hand, it sucks to live in a world where this is a thing.
On the other hand, if people are willing to hand over their money...
Get out the e-meter (Score:2)
I want to see if you're being honest.
For the birds... (Score:2, Funny)
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The owls are not what they seem.
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No love for Twin Peaks, I see.
Bullshit. (Score:3, Insightful)
Stop lying, I have never heard of this app literally anywhere until now. Pull the author's bank account, see how much he was paid to write this ad.
Re: Bullshit. (Score:5, Informative)
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Sadly, you're obviously not as informed as you think.
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https://nationalpost.com/news/world/teens-filming-a-tiktok-find-dead-body-in-suitcase-after-using-popular-exploring-app-randonautica
It didn't say if that's what they were focusing their mind on.
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So it's Pokemon Go all over again, just without cute little cartoon critters?
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This app and idea has been around for a while. I remember running across it last summer, and having a discussion with a colleague about it this past spring.
It came up as part of discussion of trying to figure out whether or not we're living in a simulation or not, and the Randonaut app was devised as a way to test the theory. There's no conclusive evidence either way yet. But people who have used the app (or similar methods to randomize their movements throughout the world) have reported strange events/coin
no way (Score:2)
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A lot of us won't survive (Score:3)
There is a cycle to great civilizations.
As they become successful, the majority of the people can become lazy and stupid yet still survive. Once they become lazy and stupid, their downfall is only a matter of time - sometimes they get conquered by others, sometimes it's a famine or plague, but a stupid, lazy people don't do well when the shit hits the fan and they don't continue to thrive. No longer able to take care of themselves, or believing that they can, the people are either conquered from outside o
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Yep.
Instead of bread and circuses, we have fast food and football.
Worst geocaching AR game ever (Score:2)
"Then it spits out a set of coordinates that could, allegedly, be influenced by your mind interacting with the machine, or not, and you can choose to go there, or not, and submit a report of what you find, or not. "
Or install the program, or not.
I don't think this is the mind to machine interface Musk was talking about.
P. T. Barnum was right.
Sounds like fun and a great idea to me (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't know why this story attracted so many dour replies. To meet seems like a fun idea, to get people out exploring...
Also it's obviously not RANDOM random, if you were going to develop this app you'd have to bound where the geo-coordinates they were given were going to be, to make it realistic to travel to... maybe even considering things like "not in the middle of a lake" though then again, maybe that would be part of the adventure.
You could almost think of it as being like a meditation tool, to go to a particular spot and be especially mindful of your surroundings there, compared to most other places you may go where you kind of drift through without thought.
It's also a great idea to help people explore locally, in a time when so many travel plans are cancelled.
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I wonder how the Hale-Bopp crew are doing now? (Score:2)
sightsee the world, and more, from your couch. Or not.
who am i to tell you what to do?
Why uninvited? (Score:2)
It's a great way to get people mauled or shot when they wander uninvited onto my property.
First of all, I think we all want to know if you are a Man-Bear hybrid who also packs heat, if so that is pretty cool.
Secondly though, I think part of the point of an app like this would be, that if your assigned point was to exist on private properly somewhere, you would ask whoever owned access to that space for permission to go there. Not everyone is going to agree, but since part of the point of going to a space i
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I can't believe it, but I actually agree with you.
The app seems like a lot of fun. I have no idea why everyone seems so down on it.
Complaints also seem odd (Score:1)
Yeah and although I don't have the app, it seems from the summary like it is free with the possibility of extra purchases if you want more than 10 places a day?
That does not seem like excessive micro-payments to me! Yet some of the complaints seem to be they are ripping people off...
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You get to see interesting things, you get exercise, and meet other people.
My most memorial place was this room were you had to climb through some obstacles but once you got in the place was decorated with unicorns and this smaller bed, desk, chair
I was only about halfway through looking in everything before the owners asked me what I was doing in their daughter's bedroom.
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make it realistic to travel to... maybe even considering things like "not in the middle of a lake"
According to the article, you have to pay extra if you want to ensure the coordinates you get aren't in bodies of water.
So it's Geohashing. (Score:3)
Everything old is new again [geohashing.site]. Yawn.
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Seems like a less-fun version of geohashing, since there's no chance you'll meet a fellow geohasher...
I made one once (Score:2)
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The Flappy Bird you mean? (Score:2)
Where people go "Huh, this guy is telling me 'everyone' downloads this, so I guess I will now too. ... Waiiit a minute, this is shit! Nobody actually downloaded this until that guy said so, and now we idiots fulfilled his prophecy! It's the stock market all over again! Nooooooooo!!!"
do it right (Score:2)
I get my random numbers from a wall of lava lamps
Free time (Score:2)
I guess it's nice for those who have the free time to dedicate to doing this. Some of us are still trying to keep things moving.
Intrigue mix of wise and completely off the rails (Score:2)
But on the other hand, teaching us to let go of our dogged, blinders-on pursuit of ultimately futile, existentially meaningless paths and goals, and surrender to the randomness of existence in the vast and cold universe. Truly owlish.
Free (Score:2)
I do this but I don't have to pay anything. I'll be driving somewhere and, on a whim, decide to go down a sidestreet I've never been down. Or pull into a shopping center I've never been to and drive around. Or walk around. It costs nothing. I don't even need an app. One of my favorite passtimes is to pick a major surface street and drive on it until it ends. Sometimes it's out in the country. Sometimes it's in some weird downtown area. Sometimes it hits a freeway, in which case I hop on and drive home.
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Behind the Bamboo Curtain (Score:1)
When we were kids, and the Summer was boring... (Score:3)
When we were kids and the Summer was boring because it was too hot or whatever, we'd stay inside with the air conditioning. One thing we'd do is spin the globe with our eyes closed and our fingers on it. This strikes me as the modern version of that, with a bit of psychic hokum thrown in for good measure.
Scam to harvest location data? (Score:5, Informative)
Sounds like a scam to harvest location data. The "Privacy" section of the privacy policy says only this about location:
To provide the Services, we need your location, and we only use your information where we have a legal basis to do so
So if you give your permission to use your location data, which seems to be the point, so to speak, then they can do pretty much anything with it.
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The Field (Score:2)
Anyone interested in this subject should check out: The Field https://www.amazon.com/Field-Q... [amazon.com]
It is about real scientist that show statistical anomalies in random number generators based on the intent of people purposely trying to skew the results just by thinking about it.
I have the paper book and audiobook. Just listened to the audiobook again a few months ago. While I have it fresh on my mind, I would like to state for the record that I don't believe everything in the book. However, some of it is l
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Is it related to this at all? noosphere.princeton.edu [princeton.edu]
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No, the author Lynne MCTaggart is anti-vaxer, pseudo-scientist and alternative medicine advocate. Not a scientist, no scientific credentials whatsoever.
In short, it's bullshit.
Or not. (Score:2)
Or not!
A monetized mediocre I Ching (Score:2)
Geo random is interesting.
Random stuff can be cool. Figure maybe a day to knock this off and see it gets past the app gate keepers.
Enter your credit card number NOW for XtraCool
3 Apps? Really (Score:2)
This guy has 3 apps for this same concept in the Apple Store. One is an outright purchase for $4.99. The others offer "in-app" purchases.
What a ripoff (Score:1)
Terry Davis figured out that random numbers are useable to talk to god well before this piece of shit app. Its just like the commercialization of christmas ;/
this an Ad? (Score:2)
Interesting (Score:2)
More seriously, it sounds like a kinda fun way to do some urban(?) exploration. Harmless (assuming masks, distancing, etc), but interesting.
COVID-19 (Score:4, Interesting)
There are organisms that affect the mind of the host in such a way to promote their spread.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r... [sciencedaily.com]
"Scientists describe new details about a fungal parasite that coerces ants into dying in just the right spot -- one that is ideal for the fungus to grow and reproduce. Their study shows just how precisely the fungus manipulates the behavior of its hapless hosts. "
This App sounds suspiciously like a smart reproduction strategy for COVID-19. I suggest we get the makers tested ASAP.