Christopher Hankins

UWRT 1101-E03
Crickenberger
10 December 2015
Reflective Essay
This project at first glance seemed really silly. I thought this class and project sounded like such
a waste of timeboy, was I wrong. This class was quite enjoyable and this project really made
me think. I cant exaggerate enough how deep I had to think into this topic to develop a
reasonable final project for it. Since this project was so open to interpretation with little to no
rules, I see how it is extremely beneficial to an engineering major; engineers develop projects
with no little to no guidelines all the time. Thankfully, I got to choose any topic I wanted. I had to
write SLIPs, Processes, and Creative Challenges involving that topic. I chose a topic that I knew
would be interesting, fun to write about, and broadincase I ran out of simple ideas. In
hindsight, I feel like the creative challenges were not helpful at all; however, the SLIPs and the
Processes were SO extremely helpful for my topic.
Just after the first day of class I knew what topic I wanted to write about. The only problem that I
had was: what in the heck am I going to research about this topic? This was my first test at some
deep thinking. I initially started with a one world group/government trying to control the world
causing mass deception on billions (read SLIP 1). This was a good idea so I started sketching
things that related to deception. I wanted to get some parts of my sketchbook filled. More
importantly, I wanted to get some good ideas for my final project. The first sketch is just random
things I thought about deception. The second sketch is my initial idea of how the government
could deceive us. I went to the extreme with this sketch and drew a picture of a toxic form of
water (government poisoning all water). I extended on this thought for my Creative challenge
End of a world scenario.
SLIP 1:
Is there some one-world group trying to control the World?
So I was confused as where to start this first SLIP so I looked up "scary confusing puzzles online
that have never been solved". This simple google question led me on a very confusing and scary
topic which I feel as human beings we should be aware about in case it does happen-- just as
George Orwell tried to warn us in his novel 1984 (however this is a different topic in itself).
So not too long ago there was a lot of speculation behind the YouTube account 'Webdriver Torso'.
In case you haven't heard about the topic there is an account on YouTube that creates less than

thirteen second videos comprised of rectangles and squares. Many believe that they are
YouTube's way of testing their uploads to ensure nothing is wrong with sound and video;
However, some Conspiracists believe it is way for spies around the world to communicate with
one another or possibly extraterrestrial life attempting to contact us--as silly as this might sound.
There is no doubt that there is some reason behind these videos.
After watching a few of the videos created by the user 'Webdriver Torso' I grew wary as to the
reason why someone might create these videos--just as many before me did as well. I read and
looked up more about them and supposedly Google released information that they were the ones
who created these videos. They used them to ensure their video and audio were in-sync and
allowing proficiency at the max performance. Google might use them for ensuring their audio
and video playback are in-sync; yet that doesn't deny that they're are confused with being linked
to Cicada 3301.
Here's where it got scary, Cicada 3301 is a group of highly intellectual people who create very
confusing and encrypted messages; Cicada 3301 was initially heard about January 4th, 2012, this
is the date they posted their first puzzle on 4chan. The reason behind this is still unknown but
many people speculate it's to create a group comprised of highly intellectual people to control the
world. I understand everyone's reason for speculation after the book '1984' came out. I would say
it's definitely correct to question where your society and government is heading. I think as
human beings we should definitely keep an eye out and make sure nothing this serious comes to
power.
As I said I stumbled upon this topic just after looking up "scary unsolved internet puzzles" and
yes this definitely takes the cake. I mean can you imagine a one world group out to control the
world? This group isn't just your average Joes, no-no-no, it's more than that--this group is highly
intellectual people who are amazing at problem solving which means if they can analyze
something and think about it thoroughly they might never be overthrown. This truly scares me
however if this is true it we need to seize it before they become too powerful.
(END OF SLIP 1)

Above is a sketch I made of Cicada 3301 this was just out of fun. Making this sketch didnt
really help me, nevertheless I feel it was a good illustration of what this group was about. The
middle insect looking thing was supposed to be a butterfly.

Above is my first sketch that I made for my topic deception. I wanted to hit everything I could
think about whenever I thought about deception.

This is the sketch I made for my End of a world scenario for my creative challenge. Above is a
picture of H2NO its a bottle of water thats poisonous.
I got really far into the semester with this subtopic, deception by government. I liked the idea of
1984, alarm the public of a potential utopian government trying to control everyone. This was
probably my main reason for choosing deception as my topic. However, I no longer wanted to
focus on the subtopic deception by government. My initial plans for my final project was to
somehow deceive my audience while also talking about previous history events that were major
acts of deception. Not until one day in class when I asked Sam and Professor C. what I should do
they both told me to find some way to deceive your audience. They both recommended I stay
away from the history events. So I gave this some thought and it hit me that same day in class
Ill just deceive my audience by playing a simple game.
I gave this some more thought, and I changed my subtopic to a more mutual level. I want to
build trust with my audience and what other way to build trust then to play a friendly game with
them? So I made a Find the hidden object in the illusion game. There were six pictures each
had a hidden object/person/animal in it except the last one. I built trust by promising there was a
hidden object in each, while also showing where the hidden object is if they needed help. I
created a comforting feel by providing hints and the answer. I think this made my audience trust
me. Then BOOM, out of nowhere, I lie to my audience. I deceive them into thinking there was
something to find in the last one when there was nothing. I related this back to a friend putting on
a fake character. Just imagine, a friend cared for you, was your friend for a while, then out of
nowhere dropped you, and removed you from their life. Im not saying this has ever happened to

me, but if it did, this would upset me greatly. I wouldnt want to ever be deceived like that again.
So in development of my game I drew a picture in my sketchbook that showed how I wanted my
game to be laid out.
So from my project I want my audience to be aware of potential deceivers. Second guess
everything. Even if it might require a little extra thought each day, its better than being hurt at
the end of the day. Thats my take away from my project.
It took me a long time, a semester, to develop this idea. In the end I feel like I got really far into
my topic. I started off at a decent spot. However, you can see how my mindset has changed over
the course. I initially was on one subtopic when I slowly progressed to another. If only I could
have stayed on my final topic much earlier I think I would have had a really good project. I feel
like with the topic of deception you could write about this topic for a whole lifetime, I even said
this in my final process (which I have included after this paragraph). Deception is so large and
people have been deceiving one another since the beginning of time, you couldnt completely
delve anywhere deep into this topic in just one lifetime. Since the original sin to now, deception
has been rampant and thats why I chose this topic.
Process 10:
When I made my first process I was pretty lost and confused when generating ideas. This was the
first time I ever reflected back on my thought process behind something. I usually did this
normally, I just never wrote it down. I cant believe how useful it was to write a process for my
writing. Majority of my best work came after writing a process beforehand. Processes help you
extract your thoughts on a particular subject and help you realize where linking points could be.
This is especially useful when you are doing a project that requires deep thought. Deception is
one of those topics that requires some deep thought. Honestly deception is such a broad topic
that you could spend your whole life on this topic and just barely scratch the surface. There is so
much behind this topic.
When I initially started my topic I wanted to base it off of a one world group or government that
was going to cause mass confusion on the public. Deceive large amounts of people and
collecting only the smartest to join their group. After just a few processes in, I realized there was
a few other minor topics in deception that I would rather talk about. Not that Deception by the
government is boring or because I ran out of ideasI just wanted to go with a different sub topic
in deception. The sub topic I chose for deception was deception on the human mind. For
example: if someone was your friend for a long time and then out of nowhere that person stops
talking to you and removes you from their life, youre going to feel lied to. Youre going to feel
deceived. That person changed character like night changes to day.
My thought process behind this was really deep. I initially wanted to make a historical collection
of major events that were led by deception. However, I realized this would be really time
consuming and I felt it wasnt deep enough. So I spent a good portion of my Thanksgiving break
really thinking deep on how I could deceive my audience. I generated a lot of really good ideas.
The best idea I generated was deceiving my audience by building trust. One major issue with
this-- how do I build trust? I could talk to them and relate to them, but not every audience

member is going to be similar to me. Were all different in our own way. One of the best ways to
build trust is by creating a game. However, I ran into another major issue with this. Im not an
amazing programmer. The hardest thing I ever coded was probably a blackjack game. I didnt
want to program. So the best thing I could do was make a game where the audience has to find
the hidden object/animal/person in the illusion. I started out by giving the user a few easy
pictures. They started getting harder and harder. Then out of nowhere I put one that has
absolutely nothing in it. I deceived my audience into a false trust. I made them think there was
something in the picture when really there wasnt.
Most of the time, people think life is concrete. Things that are here today will always be here in
their lifetime. That is one of the biggest deceptions by the mind ever. In the blink of an eye
something could change, that something could be something major. Trust is hard to build and its
hard to maintain, because everyone will put themselves first majority of the time. You can only
count on your family members most of the timeif that. Dont allow yourself to be deceived.
----End of Process 10
Above you can see how my thought has changed throughout this class. I have excerpts from
some of my SLIPs that pertain to my thought process. I chose three of my best creative
challenges to put on my inquiry project you can read those on the tab Creative challenges. They
helped me somewhat think deeper into this project; processes helped the most and thats why
majority of my best work came from the result of a process.
I will have my processes 1-10 attached on my Race to deception tab. This will further show my
process I had through this class to my final idea.