
Who Buried Paul? (1999) - well_i_never
http://ludix.com/moriarty/paul.html
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mwcampbell
His other classic lecture is The Secret of Psalm 46:

[http://ludix.com/moriarty/psalm46.html](http://ludix.com/moriarty/psalm46.html)

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valuearb
Well for a few years it could have been fairly argued that the Paul's talent
had died, until Band on the Run was released at end of 1973.

~~~
coldtea
> _until Band on the Run was released at end of 1973_

Yes, and then it couldn't be argued anymore, it was a confirmed fact.

~~~
valuearb
You sound like a lot of fun.

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Applejinx
This takes a while to get to the point, but it's a nice little thesis: worth a
read for game devs and the like.

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deveedutta
And surprisingly someone is actually taking people back:
[https://www.storywars.net/stories/7245](https://www.storywars.net/stories/7245)

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mabbo
I'd highly encourage anyone to watch the full video rather than just read the
transcript. It's an hour, and I think it was well spent.

Wonderful conspiracy theory, and a wonderful conclusion from all of it.

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a3n
It was basically a conspiracy theory. And a lot of people who today make fun
of conspiracy theorists probably believed that one back then.

Careful what you make fun of, and carry a mirror.

~~~
coldtea
> _And a lot of people who today make fun of conspiracy theorists probably
> believed that one back then._

A lot of people who "today make fun of conspiracy theorists" weren't even
alive back then.

~~~
a3n
And a lot of us were.

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azuajef
Humans are natural clue hunters, we love finding meaning in patterns we want
to find.

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trolliloquy
I'm 20 minutes into the video right now and I can connect the dots to one of
the most talked about games of 2015, FNAF, Five Nights at Freddy's, the one
that made reaction artists like Markiplier insanely popular.

How does such legends begin?

Well, first they begin with a rumor, a rumor of it being real. With the launch
of Game I & II, fans started speculations of it being a real story - about a
real pizzeria, with real kids involved, and a psychopath who might have
murdered those children, or a pedophile.

Then, began the hunt for the plot. Fans began searching for clues in the game
play, like the dates on the salary slips, the posters on the walls and
artifacts in the halls, the mini games with in the game. Some even sought the
protagonist. Some dug of news archives to look for actual events in past that
involved pizzeria, kids and murder.

And after v2 launch, some suggested that version II was actually a prequel to
version I as the dates were old and the minigames & the game's story line
suggested this too. Some even went & tallied the hourly wages during 1960s to
validate this.

Fans are fans and they do just anything.

People discussed the game characters and the protagonist. And then began the
hunt for the relation between the hotel manager, the purple guy, the kids who
died, the kid who wept all the time, the spring lock suits andthe ever-
returning-persistent security guard who refused to give up & returned, perhaps
with a different name in the sequel. Was it a rebirth? Or did he simply
changed identity? Who knew?

Had Paul answered the phone call while he was away on family vacation at some
unknown remote scotland country side, there wouldn't have been any space for
the frenzy. Since the game creator intentionally lived a life deviod of
attentions, fans & their questions went unanswered. And this is the key.

Fans were waiting for the launch of v3 as it would give more clues to who
actually was the purple guy. But they were betrayed once again. The game
maker, Scott Cawthon, made the plot even more confusing. After the version
III, people couldn't place it anywhere. Some said it was a prequel, some said
sequel, many said they were confused.

And then came the v4 where fans saw a panting boy running across the house in
panic. And some noticed the flowers & suggested it was a hospital & since the
kid is in fear, they thought it was a case of schizoprenia & a case of a
challenged 4 year old boy.

In the absence of the SSOT (single source of truth), fans began speculating,
collecting & piling evidences. They began their own versions of conspiracy
theories. The game became "the most talked about game on youtube" by the end
of 2015 as fans began making videos with their version of the theory.

Finally, Scott came out of his hideout & made a public comment that this game
was not what people thought, and what if all of it was just a dream? And this
comment was unhelpful and an insincere attempt to answer the questions of the
fandom.

This observation can be carried to more interesting plots of businesses, like
stock market trends, venture capital funding, or app usages. Insider trading
simply takes the fun out of Stock markets, and hence, it is illegal. Rumors
fuel investments. A large group of people with a lot of money without the
ability to think what to do about it, often hit with the FOMO, jump into
radicalism & make zillion dollar investments. And while the generation X is
clueless how to use snapchat, millenials are obsessed with it.

Inquisitiveness is a common trait among primates & us, hominidae aren't
excluded from this. All you need to do is, to keep a veil of mystery. As
programmers, or physists, or mathematicians, we don't like facts, we love to
solve problems & arrive at facts. Fact is a destination where the road ends.
Fact finding is a journey where you explore the unknown, meet the unmet, see
the unseen and that's what makes life beautiful.

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unixhero
Excellent presentation skills.

