"'Kay." Different one.

"...I guess that'll do. You realize the other two could still be inappropriate in some way."

"Yes but the experiment requires some level of blindness. Although honestly were these people more interested in weird complex questions than ascertaining the nature and basic functioning of these devices, how come there are so many bad ones. Anyway, if I get literally any answer at all that's better than the null results I've been getting so far."

"I think most people don't find alethiometers especially interesting and the ones who do mostly think it's interesting because they can learn information they want to know and you're a very rare bird for wanting to skip the known workable procedure for that in favor of experiments that will, much of the time, fail to work specifically because of your birdly rarity."

"But I mean to figure out how stuff works you need to map the boundaries of how it doesn't work! I would've felt very foolish if it had turned out that I could ask questions of it just by thinking them really loudly and I'd spent all that time moving the fiddly hands."

"I bet people think loudly near the one in the Louvre, since they can't touch the hands."

"Yeah and the one in the Louvre just spins around wildly. I mean, so do these, but maybe that could've been why." Shrug.

"Maybe what could've been why?"

"Maybe they spin wildly 'cause they're answering people's thoughts all the time, and I could've gotten it to focus on me by thinking at it or something." Another shrug. "Not that I thought it was likely and it didn't seem to work but it was a cheap enough test."

"Oh, I guess that would have been interesting. Though they do sometimes mark down what it's saying and it's not what I'd expect people to be asking about..."

"Yeah, I've read about that, it was another reason why it was unlikely, but worth a try anyhow."

"Well, assuming you don't want me to check the other two questions, you're all set."

So he tries asking them again.

He doesn't get an answer to any of these.

...okay, he'll read the one she knew about, now, and try it.

He gets the canonical answer! The question was supposed to be "how do birds fly" and the answer a string of meanings relatively easy to interpret in terms of modern physics but that would have seemed weird at the time.

"Okay now that's just weird, why did I get an answer this time and didn't when you knew it but when you were telling me symbols earlier it did work."

"Are you telling me you're doing experiments without a hypothesis in mind? For shame."

"I did have a hypothesis! The hypothesis was that someone had to have had the meaning of the question in mind recently around the alethiometer. And that hypothesis has been falsified, that's clearly not sufficient. Even if it might be necessary."

"But this most recent time you tried something and didn't know what you'd conclude about the world if it succeeded versus if it failed!"

"I....... knew what I'd conclude about the hypothesis at hand, but I did not have an alternative hypothesis, it's true."

"Maybe the alethiometer acknowledges you as my assistive device."

.......................that's hot.

But she said she doesn't date. So his only visible reaction to it is a ruffle of Luca's feathers.

"So if you just read me the symbols and numbers for a different question, without telling me what question it is, instead of me asking the alethiometer it again just from memory, it should work? If I'm your—assistive device."

"For one of the original three without me knowing what it is either? I mean, my hypothesis is that it only works if one of us knows what the question is and that person is participating enough in the inquiry even if through an assistive device."

"I meant with you knowing what it is, I still remember the symbols for all three questions and I don't expect you reading them aloud to me to change it, but I do expect that you knowing it and then reading it to me would work. So yes, same hypothesis."