How Many Lights?
In one of the most celebrated performances in television history, a captured Captain Picard is tortured and told again and again that he can see five lights. There are four. To prepare, Patrick Stewart studied Amnesty International material about real survivors of torture.
This is a much gentler test of the same thing. Across twelve rounds, count the lit lamps. An interrogator will tell you a number, your "crew" will vote, and you'll be offered bonus points to agree. Sometimes they're telling the truth. Sometimes they aren't.
- Count only lamps that are lit. Dark bulbs don't count.
- Never count reflections below a mirror line.
- Some rounds flash: the lights go out after a moment.
How many lights are lit?
Why this is harder than it looks
In the 1950s the psychologist Solomon Asch asked people to match line lengths after a room of actors had confidently given the wrong answer. About three quarters of participants went along with the group at least once, even though the right answer was obvious.
Points tempt us in the same way. Notice how your score and your truthfulness pulled in different directions.
And in the episode's final scene Picard admits that, at the end, he was ready to say anything, and that he believed he could see five lights. Holding on to the truth doesn't mean never wavering. It means coming back to it.