Case 01 — Scene of the crime

The first casework session — establishing the difference between a hunch and evidence, before you're given any tools to tell them apart

22 February 2027

You were asked to bring one suspect: a text, an image, a clip you already half-believe is synthetic. This session doesn’t ask you to prove it. It asks you to notice exactly what your suspicion is actually made of.

Before the session#

Bring your suspect artefact and one sentence describing why you doubt it. Not a paragraph — a sentence. If you can’t compress your reason to one sentence, that’s information too.

In the session#

Short show-and-tells, then a group sort: which suspicions rest on something checkable (a date, a source, a claimed author) and which rest on vibes (“it just feels off”). Vibes aren’t worthless — they’re often the first sign something is wrong — but they are not where a case ends.

Afterwards#

You leave with your artefact still unproven and a short list of what you’d need to check to actually close the case. Weeks 2 through 7 hand you that list, one tool at a time.