Instrument I
Experiments
Each experiment is a public register: a hypothesis, a locked analysis plan, and whatever the data turns out to say.
An experiment here is not a quiz. Before a single entry is collected, the register states what is being tested, what pure chance would produce, which statistical test will settle it, and at which sample sizes a conclusion may be drawn. That plan is published first precisely so it cannot be adjusted once results start arriving — which is the difference between a prediction and a story told afterwards.
How experiments are run →
These registers are collecting. No account, no email address and no name: an entry carries a random id minted in your browser, and clearing site data throws it away.
EXP-001Open
Twelve horoscopes rise each morning with their signs effaced. If the stars write anything personal into them, their readers should find their own at better than one part in twelve.
- You'll do
- Read all twelve of tonight's horoscopes with the signs effaced, and mark the one that matched the day you actually had.
- Takes
- About 3 minutes · one entry a night
Take part →
EXP-002Open
Enter your birth details, read the description that follows, and rate how well it fits. Then find out what everyone else was reading.
- You'll do
- Enter your birth details, read the description they produce, and rate how well it fits — then find out what you actually rated.
- Takes
- About 2 minutes · once
Take part →
EXP-003Open
Five cards, one chosen at random, and a sealed commitment shown to you before you guess — so you can prove afterwards that the answer was never changed to suit the result.
- You'll do
- Guess which of five cards was drawn, against a sealed commitment you can verify yourself afterwards.
- Takes
- About a minute · as many rounds as you like
Take part →
EXP-004Open
Rate the day you have just had. Then, and only then, draw a card. Over enough days the question answers itself: do the cards land where their meanings say they should?
- You'll do
- Rate the day you have just had, then draw a card — in that order, so the card cannot colour the rating.
- Takes
- Under a minute · one draw a day
Take part →
Nothing to enter here. The windows are computed from orbital elements and republished as they move.
EXP-005Reading only · no entries collected
Mercury retrograde gets blamed for delayed flights, dropped calls and broken deployments. The windows are real and computable to the hour. Whether anything actually clusters inside them is a separate question, and an answerable one.
- You'll do
- Read the computed retrograde windows, the orbital elements behind them, and the checks the code has to pass.
See the windows →