What would you do?
I've given this little puzzle to a bunch of people, and I've gotten all types of responses.
So:
You wake up one morning, roll over, and slide the snooze lever on your phone. You take a glance, you see the numbers "2721" in the tail end of a text alert from your credit card company.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
You'll check it later.
Listening to NPR, or Howard Stern, or a local am radio show, you hear one of the jocks or hosts mention a "27 to 1" scoring spree by the San Antonio Spurs during last night's play-off game.
When you sit down to pour your cereal, your eyes hover over the nutrition label. The cereal has 27 grams of carbs, of which 21 are sugar.
In the car on the way to work, you notice that your odometer reads "2721."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
A receipt you crumpled up and left on the driver's seat totals $27.21
The sanitation truck you're following has a placard: It's vehicle 2721.
On the radio, the pick-four lottery number is, yes, 2721.
Assume that these numbers are the only numbers you've noticed.
Do you:
1. Drive to the hospital
2. Make a note to call a physicist
3. Make a note to call your cleric or spiritual medium, or the police
4. Wait and see what happens next
Me?
I'd drive to the hospital and get myself admitted. My world, the world that I perceive, has somehow become untethered from reality. Something is causing me to notice these numbers when other numbers are there, or I am only noticing these numbers to the exclusion of all others. Either way, the problem is in my brain. Something is misfiring.
If you answered (2), then perhaps you believe that you have stumbled upon a divergence of some sort in the universe, something about external reality outside of your own head that is violating the known laws of physics and math and heralds something unknown about existence. The problem, in other words, isn't you. Your brain is accurately perceiving.
If you answered (3), then maybe God or your deity is trying to send you a message. Not only is the problem not you, but whatever is happening is about you. Perhaps aliens are messing with things.
If you answered (4), then maybe you have a degree of confidence and self-possession that allows you to avoid worrying that your brain is malfunctioning or the world is malfunctioning.
What would you do?
Marc Ambinder is TheWeek.com's editor-at-large. He is the author, with D.B. Grady, of The Command and Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry. Marc is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic and GQ. Formerly, he served as White House correspondent for National Journal, chief political consultant for CBS News, and politics editor at The Atlantic. Marc is a 2001 graduate of Harvard. He is married to Michael Park, a corporate strategy consultant, and lives in Los Angeles.
-
Assad's fall upends the Captagon drug empire
Multi-billion-dollar drug network sustained former Syrian regime
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
The key financial dates to prepare for in 2025
The Explainer Discover the main money milestones that may affect you in the new year
By Marc Shoffman, The Week UK Published
-
Crossword: December 19, 2024
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
Walter Isaacson's 'Elon Musk' can 'scarcely contain its subject'
The latest biography on the elusive tech mogul is causing a stir among critics
By Theara Coleman Published
-
Welcome to the new TheWeek.com!
The Explainer Please allow us to reintroduce ourselves
By Jeva Lange Published
-
The Oscars finale was a heartless disaster
The Explainer A calculated attempt at emotional manipulation goes very wrong
By Jeva Lange Last updated
-
Most awkward awards show ever?
The Explainer The best, worst, and most shocking moments from a chaotic Golden Globes
By Brendan Morrow Published
-
The possible silver lining to the Warner Bros. deal
The Explainer Could what's terrible for theaters be good for creators?
By Jeva Lange Last updated
-
Jeffrey Wright is the new 'narrator voice'
The Explainer Move over, Sam Elliott and Morgan Freeman
By Jeva Lange Published
-
This week's literary events are the biggest award shows of 2020
feature So long, Oscar. Hello, Booker.
By Jeva Lange Published
-
What She Dies Tomorrow can teach us about our unshakable obsession with mortality
The Explainer This film isn't about the pandemic. But it can help viewers confront their fears about death.
By Jeva Lange Published