silent evidence
I came across the concept of silent evidence a few years ago while reading Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
The main idea is that humans tend to narrate the things that happen, explaining them with chains of cause and effect that we take for granted.
Many times we predict incorrectly because of these narratives we take for granted because we ignore the presence of evidence that would make us change our minds.
This hidden evidence is what we call silent evidence.
He uses it to justify his idea that we cannot predict.
In his words:
Silent evidence pervades everything connected to the notion of history. By history, I don’t mean just those learned-but-dull books in the history section (with Renaissance paintings on their cover to attract buyers). History, I will repeat, is any succession of events seen with the effect of posteriority.
As writers, we often, sometimes unconsciously, use silent evidence to our advantage.
All information that we as authors have and the player does not, creates a very important area of work for the generation of meaning.
- What does the player know at this point in the story?
- What do I know that he doesn’t?
- Are there opportunities for foreshadowing?
- Or better: are there opportunities for probabilistic foreshadowing? (more on this in another email)
These are some narrative design questions we can ask ourselves at any point in the game that are directly related to silent evidence.
In what ways have you used or you plan to use silent evidence in your stories/games?
Have you played any games that use silent evidence in novel ways?
I do, but that’s for another email, sorry. 🤭