Randonauting, Intention, Magick

Z , modified 3 Years ago at 8/8/20 12:35 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 11:52 AM

Randonauting, Intention, Magick

Posts: 201 Join Date: 3/16/18 Recent Posts
Randonautica is an app, potentially with magickal aspects, that allows one to explore a local area using elements of randomness and intentionality. It asks for the user to focus on an intention in their mind and then uses a quantum random number generator to overlay a set of points on a map of the area you’re currently in, churning out anomalous locations of improbable absences of points (called “Voids”) or improbable collections of many points (“Attractors”).

These anomalous locations have “power” levels based on how unlikely it is for them to have been produced given the randomness of the generator, pointing to the possibility that the intentionality of the user may have affected the process in some significant way. This process is based off research done at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab that demonstrates a causal influence of the human mind on the operation of these number generators. 

Having an anomalous point, the user then walks or drives to the location and often encounters personally significant objects and events along the way and especially at the destination of the anomalous point, these things are often aligned with theme of the user’s previously set intention.

I think the most straightforward application of the Randonaut app is as a kind of meat-and-potatoes divination technique. Similar to the way one can use the I Ching or Tarot to shed light and engage in a dialogue with unconscious narratives and processes, you can use Randonautica as an immersive way to investigate certain questions or themes you might have at the time. Since your perceptions and intentions will be inclined towards these themes, it is almost like a very light absorption into some theme wrapped into a walking meditation.

I have used the app a few times with friends and subsequently bumped into many meaningful, strange and synchronistic objects, symbols and events in doing so. You can really play around with the intention to make things more light-hearted or perhaps gain insight into some burning question or topic, for instance, one of our intentions was “removal of blockages”.

Curious to hear if anyone else has tried it out, had any interesting results or managed to integrate it into any sort of practice or technique.

Further Reading
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Siavash ', modified 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 11:58 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 11:58 AM

RE: Randonauting, Intention, Magick

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
And now they can collect our intentions and add it to their data stores!

I'd prefer to do it with a knife and a stone emoticon
genaro, modified 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 12:09 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 12:06 PM

RE: Randonauting, Intention, Magick

Posts: 126 Join Date: 11/23/19 Recent Posts
https://dilbert.com/strip/2001-10-25

h
a ha! but there's a serious message here maybe involving confirmation bias

or maybe you should check out The Dice Man by Luke Reinhardt
Z , modified 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 12:08 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 12:07 PM

RE: Randonauting, Intention, Magick

Posts: 201 Join Date: 3/16/18 Recent Posts
Siavash:
And now they can collect our intentions and add it to their data stores!

I'd prefer to do it with a knife and a stone emoticon

Haha, the user's intention is never actually input into the app itself, but I can understand your concern. Due to the spooky nature of the app and the relatively low-visibility team behind it, there seem to be many conspiracy theories now swirling around. 

For what it's worth, I was listening to a recent interview with the creator who said that privacy was a big concern for them and that no user data is shared with third parties, but who can you really trust these days emoticon
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Siavash ', modified 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 12:32 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 12:32 PM

RE: Randonauting, Intention, Magick

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
the user's intention is never actually input into the app itself

Actually I think user's intention is the input, based on what you wrote.

If the app wants to collect all user's data, then what is important is the patterns. User have intention A, and then uses the app. By using the app, he/she has the phone in his hands, moving it, touching the app, etc. Then she has intention B, and again uses the app, movements, touches, etc. How the movements and touches and other inputs differ from intetion A to intention B, can give data points to define patterns which based on them you can define a way to formulate user's intention. And that's pretty scary.

Well, yeah, they all say they care about privacy! I tend to look more at where the money and power comes from, instead of what they say.
Brian, modified 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 10:19 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 10:19 PM

RE: Randonauting, Intention, Magick

Posts: 110 Join Date: 1/21/19 Recent Posts
I actually am somewhat interested in the deliberate incorporation of randomness into one's life. But the way this company is using the word "quantum" is quackery. I'm a programmer, and I don't know what "quantum" randomness would be, and I suspect that if I were to look into it or reverse engineer their app, I would find a conventional pseudorandom number generator at work, perhaps seeded by input from the user. That doesn't make it any less "random" from the perspective of a human, but it makes me wonder about the company, because if they'll be dishonest about one thing, maybe they'll be dishonest about something else.
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svmonk, modified 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 10:48 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 10:48 PM

RE: Randonauting, Intention, Magick

Posts: 400 Join Date: 8/23/14 Recent Posts
Hi Zachery,

I suggest you check out "Targeted" by Brittany Kaiser before using this game again. She worked for Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 election. She describes how Cambridge Analytica used innocent seeming games on Facebook to construct psychological profiles of the people who played them, then during the election generated custom ads designed to scare them into not voting or voting for Trump. Facebook constructed a specific product for Cambridge. You can never tell where the data you generate on such a game is going to end up.
Z , modified 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 11:19 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 8/7/20 11:19 PM

RE: Randonauting, Intention, Magick

Posts: 201 Join Date: 3/16/18 Recent Posts
Brian:
I actually am somewhat interested in the deliberate incorporation of randomness into one's life. But the way this company is using the word "quantum" is quackery. I'm a programmer, and I don't know what "quantum" randomness would be, and I suspect that if I were to look into it or reverse engineer their app, I would find a conventional pseudorandom number generator at work, perhaps seeded by input from the user. That doesn't make it any less "random" from the perspective of a human, but it makes me wonder about the company, because if they'll be dishonest about one thing, maybe they'll be dishonest about something else.

The app does not use a psuedorandom number generator, the type you might find included as a method in the libraries of various programming languages. Instead, the app observes outside data from a quantum laser inside a vacuum at the Australian National University. 
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Griffin, modified 3 Years ago at 8/8/20 9:49 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 8/8/20 9:49 AM

RE: Randonauting, Intention, Magick

Posts: 271 Join Date: 4/7/18 Recent Posts
I’ve used this app recently. There are no privacy issues folks, because you don’t write the intention, you just imagine it. And then you make a click to generate a random location, that’s it.

I used it for a few times, without impressive results. I am not drawn to all this “synchronicity” stuff. “The secret”, sigils, now Randonautica… You never know whether the results you get are “magick”, or it’s just a coincidence and confirmation bias.

I see how this quantum-intention theory could work. But I also see that alternative explanation is much more grounded in science, experience and logic. Alternative explanation being – it’s all just quantum quackery combined with confirmation bias. When people go to new places with strong intention to see and interpret things in some “mystical” way, it is LOGICAL that they will “find” what they look for. It’s basic human psychology, our meaning-making tendency and projections. It’s seeing Jesus’s face in your pancake, or interpreting every sound as scary after watching a horror movie.

Considering that army of people is using this app, it’s statistically INEVITABLE to have many spectacular coincidences. You don’t need any quantum magick to explain this. If all those interesting experiences are synchronicities, then where the heck are the coincidences?

Someone could say: “Does it really matter? Even if it’s not true, you are exploring your own mind and projections.” For me, it does matter. I would rather spend time exploring my mind in meditation or psychotherapy, than via some fraudulent app.

I am open to the possibility of Randonautica being legit. Maybe they really found a way to invoke location-related synchronicities. I do think that these phenomena exist. But nobody from this “synchronicity” business ever explains where is the difference between coincidence and “synchronicity”. And I cannot trust someone who ignores such a fundamental question. Someone who nonchalantly “cuts ties” with rational-scientific dimension of the world and lives solely in the realm of dubious mystical hypotheses. Considering how many events are constantly happening to 7.5 billion people on earth, INSANE AND AMAZING COINCIDENCES are inevitable, all the time. It’s called the Littlewood's law: mathematically speaking, miracles MUST happen.
 
Hector L, modified 3 Years ago at 8/8/20 2:02 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 8/8/20 2:02 PM

RE: Randonauting, Intention, Magick

Posts: 139 Join Date: 5/9/20 Recent Posts
I believe the difference between coincidence and synchroniticity according to this (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity) is the assignment of meaning to the coincidence, i.e. "meaningful coincidence" vs "non-meaningful coincidence". If you increase the number of coincidences, e.g. visit a "watering hole" such as around the water dispenser, you can increase the odds that you have a meaninful coincidental conversation that might give you more information about something unexpected. (Say the probability of meaningful coincidences is a constant proability p. Then the expected number of meaningful coinincidences is pN. As N tends to infinity, by the birthday problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem reasoning it's highly unlikely that there are no meaningful coincidences)
This TED talk also gives an interesting perspective on risk taking https://www.ted.com/talks/tina_seelig_the_little_risks_you_can_take_to_increase_your_luck

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