Mr Hook's Big Black Box

«What He Said»

"The Box started as a psychology experiment, right? It was some collaboration between three faculties. Sports psychology, game theory, and the actual psychology department. But in order to be a fair test of whatever it was the experiment was supposed to find, the people taking part in the experiment needed to know there was something on the line. So they picked a couple of students on each course, and they wagered a chunk of the budgets from the three faculties on it."

"That doesn't seem likely," Dwayne said under his breath, while Marco was trying to think of the next word.

"That's what I thought. But when the guy who has the power to kick me off my course tells me I need to do this to stay on, I've got to listen. Right?"

"Why would they use a society whose students aren't in those societies, if–"

"I don't know!" Marco snapped, cutting Ferrari off before she could finish the question. Then he took a deep breath and started again: "Look, I only know what Nigel told me, right? I just did what he told me. And I assumed the Box was really this..."

"Yeah, what did you think was in it?" Dwayne asked. "I guess it wasn't the time capsule thing again?"

"No, that wasn't serious enough. He knew me well, right? It's got to be a serious competition to get me really fired up. A story of rivalry, with consequences if you fail. The prize has to mean something."

"So did he tell you what's in the Box?"

"He said it's not a Box, it's a machine."

There was a long silence then, before anyone else spoke. And Marco repeated the truth as he'd known it: The Box wasn't a real box at all, but a mechanical thing built out of gyroscopes, and microphones, and sensors. It would record how it was treated, and how the society handled it. And if it was opened, it would take a picture of everyone present.

"Why would it do all that?" Destinee put words to the question that was on everyone's mind.

"Because it's a game. Maybe a kind of sport. The custodians of the Box get rated on how well they understand the instructions, whether they meet the requirements about not freezing it or leaving it outside, and all that stuff. And also, they get a rating for honesty, and curiosity. If someone opens the Box, the experiment does its best to work out why. And if someone's trying to open it, there'll be recordings tracking who was involved. Who was honest, and who wasn't."

"All for a psych experiment? Sounds a bit far fetched."

"I don't know about psychology, about what the current state of the art is in research into honesty. It sounded like it might be believable. But to test if people's responses change under pressure, or based on unconscious expectations or something, there's money at stake. Some kind of bequest, from one of the ancient professors who ran this experiment the first time. Some kind of expert on how to manipulate people, who wanted to go on collecting this research. The cash goes to a faculty's budget, or to societies, or a dozen other things. Split up by this nightmare of a rules system that makes the points and credits for our degrees look simple. Sometimes it's good to have honest students, sometimes it's good to have them double cross their friends or something."

"So the money's just an incentive to take part in the experiment? I can kind of buy that," Dwayne looked thoughtful. "But they never told us about a reward."

"No. Because the players are all kept in the dark. But their tutors know how much it could mean for the department if they do the right thing, or don't. And maybe the lecturers might unconsciously slant the morality of their lectures or something, influence their students even if they don't realise it."

"They're not supposed to tell you then?"

"No. But one of my modules was on the psychology of cheating, right? Sports science does everything now. And if I cheat for the department, if I get them this half-million extra funding, then I'll pass that class."

"I don't think you'd have believed that. Even you're smarter than that." Dwayne muttered sarcastically, "That's probably the least likely story of any of them."

"I'm tempted to think Marco forgot most of that story, and just improvised it on the fly," Ferrari added, "I mean, a psych experiment maybe I could believe. And some kind of department rivalry, maybe. But if Hawthorne is a sports psychology expert, he'd have twisted the threads together better than that."

"Maybe I didn't get every detail," Marco admitted, "But that was the basic gist of it."

"Still not something I'd go along with. But if this guy was deliberately trying to confuse Marco, it's understandable that he can't repeat the crux of the argument."

"Hey," Marco glared at Dwayne, "It's you who should of been more sceptical. You got conned by a promise of lewd videos, I just trusted my tutor. It doesn't matter if I thought he was telling the truth or not, because either way, the only way I'm getting a bachelor's degree is to do what he says. I had every reason not to believe him, maybe. But if he's lying to me, then the test becomes whether or not I'll do it anyway. Maybe he was lying about my results being too low, as well. Maybe there was no chance of me failing already. But he had my exam results in front of him there, so I had to believe that whatever the deal with this Box was, it was something to do with the department."

"It's too big of a risk," Kris hazarded, "Even if you don't believe the words he says, you can't gamble your graduation. When your professor says to do something, you must do it."

"Exactly!" Marco nodded, and looked around at the others looking for some sign of disagreement. "He made the explanation as complicated as possible, so I wouldn't be able to repeat it. But he made sure there were enough things in there that I couldn't say 'no' to."

"So what did he need you to do? To retrieve some item from the Box?"

"No, just open it. Open it in secret, without the rest of you knowing, and let the cameras catch how shocked I am when I see the Box is a a machine inside."

"At least that part was easy enough for you to understand," Dwayne made a little joke, but it fell flat. They all knew what had really been at stake when it came to opening the Box. Nobody had anything else to say for a second, so Marco went on with the story.