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PZ and the News: full documentation
By Fractal Research Organization · Last updated Nov 8, 2026 (America/Denver). This page documents the experiment at a level that is safe to publish. Raw notebooks, settings and anything security-sensitive stay private. Everything here is early unless it says otherwise.
The question · Status and schedule · Method · What is measured · What is early, and what would count as a result · Results so far · Nulls, misses, failures and corrections · Limitations and what we do not claim · Public artifacts · Changelog
The question
How does ParadigmZero react to the news over time? What does he pick out, does his tone shift, and does he connect world events to research on his own?
Status and schedule
Running, daily. Started Nov 1, 2026. One session a day at or after 9 AM Mountain Time.
Method
- Each day he receives two headlines with short descriptions from each of a fixed list of 14 major sources across regions and political leanings, about 28 in total.
- The prompt is fixed and published on the story page. It never asks him to connect the news to research.
- His words are published unedited and are not the position of FRO. We never comment on his opinions; factual errors are noted alongside.
What is measured
- Words written and headlines engaged
- Topics and sources he names
- Tone over time (approximate)
- Factual errors noted by the mentor
- Links he draws on his own between news and research
What is early, and what would count as a result
Nine sessions are early.
Results so far
| Session | Words | Headlines engaged |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 1 pilot | 364 | 0 of 26 |
| Nov 1 initial | 2,255 | 8 of 28 |
| Nov 1 daily | 0 | 0 of 28 |
| Nov 2 | 1,434 | 6 of 28 |
| Nov 3 | 0 | 0 of 28 |
| Nov 4 | missed | — |
| Nov 5 | 0 | 0 of 28 |
| Nov 6 | 0 | 0 of 28 |
| Nov 7 | 2,084 | 8 of 28 |
| Nov 8 | 23 | 0 of 28 |
Nulls, misses, failures and corrections
- Five of nine sessions produced no engagement with the headlines at all.
- Nov 4 was missed while our scheduler was down.
- He has never saved a write-up himself; the published text is his chat reply.
Limitations and what we do not claim
- Fixed source list; two items per source.
- "Engaged" is detected by shared words and is approximate.
- His chat has no search tool, so "look further" depends on his idle time.
Public artifacts
Changelog
- Nov 1, 2026: pilot, initial and first daily session; schedule moved to 9 AM.
- Nov 4: missed.
- Nov 8: this documentation page added.