By Hannah Hall
Have you ever heard of Randonautica? When Editor Erik said to the Blog Staff, “Find scary stories!” Hannah thought Randonautica was pretty darn scary.
Randonautica is an app that utilizes a quantum random number generator (QRNG) to create random coordinates. Users wander to and about these coordinates–bringing into play their own unique intentions. The app focuses around the quantum process of using thought and consciousness to influence your environment, thus filling it with synchronicities and coincidences.
To use the app, you start by entering your radius of desired movement and whether or not you want water points included in your coordinates, then you send in your location. After that, you tell the app what kind of quantum point you want generated. For this step, you are presented 3 options:
*Attractor (the center of the densest cluster of quantum dots),
*Void (the center of the least dense cluster of quantum dots),
*and Anomaly (the strongest of the two).
From there, you decide your own journey by setting an intention. Usually, it is a broad theme such as joy, peace, or love, but other times it is something specific such as spotting a rose bush. Then, the quantum point is generated by the QRNG of your choice; the app defaults to the Australian National University, which bases its points on the fluctuations of the magnetic field of virtual particles from a quantum laser in a vacuum! The other two QRNG’s are Temporal, which is based on processor time cycles, and Cam RNG, which is based on thermal noise in the photo-matrix detectors within your smartphone camera. Once the point is sent to you, it will come with all of its statistical info, including the z-score, power, and radius…basically the technical deets. Nevertheless, once you get it, you may embark on your amazing adventure with your handy dandy GPS (aka Google Maps).
But, sometimes Randonauting can be far from amazing. In June 2020, a group of Washington teens took all the steps to begin their quantum trip. Unfortunately, nothing could prepare them for what was to come. They set their intention and started trekking their way to their point. It sent them to the shore of Alki Beach in Seattle. Filming the experience, they crept down the rocky slope to their coordinates only to notice a black suitcase. The video they were filming had the accompanying caption, “…We found this black suitcase. We were joking that maybe the suitcase would have money. As SOON as [we] opened it, the smell was overwhelming.” Because the smell was so alarming, a girl from the group promptly called 911. The police came to the scene, and later notified the public that the content of the dreaded black suitcase was two dismembered bodies. Later, a man was arrested with connections to the remains.
This leads us to ask, What really were their intentions? What led this Randonauting group to that suitcase?
You, too, can go Randonauting (once the app re-opens in two weeks). I hope you do so without running into something gruesome. To be honest, when I did this with a friend, it sent me to the Staples parking lot in Palm Springs. And, all I found were cars and trash in the lot.
Sources Referenced:
https://www.thecut.com/2020/07/what-is-randonautica-the-app-that-led-teens-to-a-dead-body.html
Scary Stories Editor: Erik Bearman
Boy, do we ever live in a “Brave New World.” The first half of this story (the exposition) about the workings of the app, lost me …like a foreign language. But after getting the gist of the game, it was interesting to see where it would lead a person. Was the Seattle find a one off, or is the app a detective service as well? This old dog enjoyed learning about something new!! Thanks, Hannah.
Wow – fascinating! Quantum physics and where it will take us – still some kinks to work out.