When I was young, I was fascinated by all things paranormal: ghosts, aliens, conspiracies. I even read two books by Erich von Däniken. Of course, the early 2000s internet was full of that stuff. But over time, I started noticing patterns in those stories and came across scientific explanations.
Just recently, I learned that supposedly haunted locations often have higher concentrations of mold spores in the air. So if you’re seeing ghosts now and then, I can recommend the good old German concept of „Stosslüften“.
One evening, I found myself happily sucked into the YouTube channel of a ghost-hunting TV show. I had read in a Hackaday article that ghost hunters had added the Xbox Kinect to their toolbox.
The Kinect’s IR-based structured light system is well-suited for these environments. Since its processing core runs a machine learning application specifically trained to track human figures, it’s no surprise that the device can pick up those invisible, pesky spirits hiding in the noise.
Dave Rowntree on Hackaday
That got me thinking. Just because you’re using scientific tools doesn’t mean you’re doing science. Scientific thinking is something you have to learn. Otherwise, you’re just working with a bunch of biases, like the „Scientists“ in the Documentary Behind the Curve.
In the film, flat Earth advocates carry out experiments to test the hypothesis that the Earth is flat, the results of which confirm that the Earth is a globe, and so are discarded.
Wikipedia
For me, this is a reminder that critical thinking matters. Not just in ghost hunting, but in design too. Tools and data can be helpful, but without a clear process and the willingness to question your own assumptions, they become noise.
As a designer, it’s not enough to throw dashboards and prototypes at people. I need to build shared understanding, not just grab people’s attention.
That means staying humble, being transparent about how I work, and inviting others in. Not impressing them with tech jargon or fancy graphs.
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