Re: Oraculon

Uncertainty is something that Humans tend to avoid but also are attracted to. For instance people can become quite bored and unhappy if their lives are too routine and predictable, which could then inspire risk taking / thrill seeking behavior. At the same time if one's day to day life is very chaotic then an interest in stabilizing ones habits becomes more appealing

From my own experience whenever I get Chinese food for example and am given fortune cookies, I tend to look at these "generic" messages and look for a way to apply them to my current life, and due to the often positive tone of the message , I come away thinking that these messages are somehow calming, or even motivational.

Perhaps one way to turn the fortune teller trope on it's head would be to ask the user to answer some sort of question that gauges their mindset towards wether or not they are in the mood for uncertainty or adventure. I think the typical clairvoyant mindset is that people are looking for an answer to a difficult question, in other words they are looking to relieve themselves of uncertainty. Maybe it could be the opposite as well, in other words what kind of fortune telling could inspire a quest for more uncertainty rather than avoiding it

In this potential experience the user get's asked questions related to uncertainty, or chance, or randomness, then they get some sort of output answer letting them know where they stand on the spectrum between being drawn to certainty or being adverse to it. If a user is a drawn to certainty perhaps they should get a fortune that inspires the opposite, rather than reinforcing the preferences of the user. This was the answers are still generic / random to a certain degree but they are also more guided by the user input and therefor may seem less generic.