Randonautica (a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsnautica Nautica is an American apparel brand of Authentic Brands Group featuring primarily men's, women's, children's apparel and accessories, as well as home, watches, and fragrance. Nautica was founded in 1983 by clothing designer David Chu and a par ...

") is an app launched on February 22, 2020 founded by Auburn Salcedo and Joshua Lengfelder (). It randomly generates

coordinates In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of the points or other geometric elements on a manifold such as Euclidean space. The order of the coordinates is sig ...

that enable the user to explore their local area and report on their findings. According to its creators, the app is "an attractor of strange things," letting one choose specific coordinates based on a certain theme. It has gained controversy after several reports on the app generating coordinates, seemingly coincidentally, where disturbing things were present.

Overview

The app, which creators claim to be inspired by

chaos theory Chaos theory is an interdisciplinary area of scientific study and branch of mathematics focused on underlying patterns and deterministic laws of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, and were once thought to have co ...

and

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationis ...

's Theory of the Derive, offers its users three types of coordinates to choose from: an attractor, a void, or an anomaly. The app has a cult following on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

and there is a

subreddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

made by the creators for users of the app.

History

29-year-old circus performer Joshua Lengfelder discovered a bot called Fatum Project in a

fringe science Fringe science refers to ideas whose attributes include being highly speculative or relying on premises already refuted. Fringe science theories are often advanced by persons who have no traditional academic science background, or by researchers ...

chat group on

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

in January 2019. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', "He absorbed the project’s theories about how random exploration could break people out of their predetermined realities, and how people could influence random outcomes with their minds." Lengfelder then created a Telegram bot using Fatum Project's code, generating coordinates. He then created the

r/randonauts in March. In October, developer Simon Nishi McCorkindale made the bot's webpage. With the help of Auburn Salcedo, chief executive of a TV agency, both created Randonauts LLC. Salcedo became the

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...

while Lengfelder is the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

. The app, called Randonautica, was launched on February 22, 2020.

Reception

The app has as many as 10.8 million users as of July 2020, gaining popularity amid the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the Uni ...

as restrictions have been lightened.

Emma Chamberlain Emma Frances Chamberlain (born May 22, 2001) is an American internet personality, specifically on YouTube. She won the 2018 Streamy Award for Breakout Creator. In 2019, ''Time'' magazine included her on its ''Time'' 100 Next list, and its list ...

made a

video about the app that helped increase its following. i-D reported that the hashtag #randonautica has gained 176.5 million views on TikTok, although it has not marketed itself yet.

Controversy

With the app's popularity users started reporting coincidences which many find unsettling. The majority of reports were from

and

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

, as well as

. The most trending controversy involves a group of people heading to a beach in

Duwamish Head Duwamish Head is the northernmost point in West Seattle, Washington, jutting into Elliott Bay. The Duwamish called it "Low Point" or "Base of the Point" (Lushootseed: sgWudaqs). A large boulder covered with petroglyphs once lay on the beach. The ...

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

West Seattle West Seattle is a conglomeration of neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington, United States. It comprises two of the thirteen districts, Delridge and Southwest, and encompasses all of Seattle west of the Duwamish River. It was incorporated as an i ...

per the app, where they found a bag with two dead bodies, 27 and 36, male and female, as reported by the Seattle Police

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

detectives A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads the ...

. In August 2020 police arrested and charged their landlord, Michael Lee Dudley, in connection to the murder. In March 2021 Dudley was denied bail and other people are under suspicion of aiding Dudley in the dismemberment and disposal of the bodies, but no one else has been charged. This has caused speculation that the app has an intended, puzzle-like theme, however Lengfelder stated that it is "a shocking coincidence." Salcedo called the videos fake, and that "It’s so hard to manage, because people are really taking creative liberties after seeing how much traction the app is getting in that fear factor." In their questions page, Randonautica's creators have said that if the app generates coordinates inside a

private property Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property and personal property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or ...

, it is a violation of their terms and conditions to trespass. In addition, Randonautica has also received allegations that the app is used for

human trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...

, which its creators have denied, saying that data collected by the app are anonymous. It also ensured that the app is not designed to violate religious customs, saying that "the app is simply a tool. Just as a knife can be used either to prepare dinner or to cut somebody."

References

{{Reflist

External links

Randonautica official website

r/randonauts
a subreddit for Randonauts
The relevant randomness rig
at

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...