ABSTRACT

The stakes of the game concerning mysteriousness transcend technological know-how or proprietary knowledge. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point,8 captured the essence of mysteriousness by drawing a distinction between mysteries and puzzles in an article in The New Yorker.9 Describing a strategic change in the CIA’s method of data analysis, Gladwell outlines the fact that historical techniques for information gathering (based upon puzzle logics) are inadequate and that a number of new models are being explored to counter terrorism – the most promising of which analyzes information as mysteries. Gladwell notes: “Puzzles withhold information and are transmitter dependent. As more information becomes available, they become more simple.”10 They require “the application of energy and persistence,”11 which he regards as “the virtues of youth.”12 One could infer from this that puzzles are about the difficulty of encryption and the complexity of decoding. Mysteries, on the other hand, “require judgments and the assessment of uncertainty. It’s not that we have too little information, but in fact that we have too much.”13 Mysteries are “murkier,” they are “receiver dependent,” they “turn on the skills of the listener,” and they “demand experiencing and insight.”14 What is of importance in relation to these works is that mysteries engage the viewer, they draw one in and one may never find the answers. Their seduction lies in their endlessness, vagueness, and degrees of continuous motion.