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13 October 2008
Skepticism and blindfolds
There was a video posted on the speedsolving forum of a 6 year old girl solving a cube blindfolded.
Cute, right? And quite talented, especially for her age. She's definitely off to a good start.
But why isn't she wearing an actual blindfold?
If you have a camera, do this experiment. Take a picture of your own face while your eyes are closed. Then open your eyes just enough to be able to see, but try to make them seem as if they were still closed, and take another picture.
Can you tell the difference?
Without a blindfold over her eyes, it is all too easy for her to take a peek, and we would never be able to tell. Now I'm not saying that she did cheat. But as no one can say for sure, it would be natural for one to take the legitimacy of this video with a grain of salt, right?
I was a little disappointed by how easily people on the forum were willing to accept that it was for real. Non-cubers are all too quick to scream "fake!" at our blindfold cubing videos. Being just as quick to defend the integrity of a video when someone has left a door wide open for doubt is just as silly. With the former, it's just ignorance. With the latter, it's blind faith.
Why do BLD cubers wear blindfolds? It's not just to keep them from seeing; if they are honest, they're not trying to look in the first place, so that makes it kind of pointless. It's to prove to others they can't see, that they're not cheating. Now, incidents in the past have shown that the sleep masks we use as blindfolds aren't 100% perfect. But they do impart a measure of confidence in the blindsolver. While cheating is still possible with a blindfold, it takes considerably more effort and is usually more noticeable. At the end of the day, I have much more confidence in the integrity of this video than this one.
If someone we considered less trustworthy did a blindfold video in which he simply squeezed his eyes shut and didn't use a blindfold, we would be tearing it apart. Others have said they see no reason to doubt the little girl. But how do we know? Maybe she's under a lot of pressure from a demanding parent to succeed (certainly not unheard of). Maybe she's done half a dozen attempts trying to get a success on video and simply wanted to get it over with. And if someone were to cheat at a blindfold solve, I would think it's more likely to happen in an at home practice session as opposed to an official competition; it's easier to pull off (especially in this situation), and the consequences aren't anywhere near as bad if you get caught. I'm not saying any of these necessarily apply to the little girl, or implying that she is the type who is likely to cheat. But just because you don't see a reason for doubt doesn't mean there isn't one.
In any case, we can only wait till she goes to her next WCA competition. She's well on her way to becoming the youngest blindfold solver by a huge margin.
Maybe I am being a little cynical. And I guess it is sad that the cubing community doesn't have the same mutual trust it had when it was smaller. But that's kind of inevitable as the hobby becomes more mainstream and more people get into it. I know just because a few bad apples exist it doesn't mean everyone else is bad. But believing that everyone is trustworthy, even if there's a reasonable doubt, is also kind of naive. If you still have faith in the blindfold-less video, let me ask you: why require that the eyes be closed? Would you trust someone who did a blindfold solve with his eyes open, but holding the cube such that it is just out of his field of vision? If no, where are you drawing the line and why? If yes, I've got a bridge for sale you might be interested in....
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