Gossip Stone

Features

The Gossip Stone is a speculative object about how we speak and care for one another. It asks how design can show the difference between intimate truth‑sharing and speculative uncertainty—and how that difference matters for collective survival.

Housed inside a real stone, the device holds touch sensors, a speaker, a microphone amplifier and a mini‑computer. Like ancient tools and markings, it acknowledges that gossip and rumor have always shaped human social life.

Scope

When at least two people hold the stone and touch all sensors, it activates, mirroring the intimacy required for gossip. Each spoken fragment is passed through Socrates’ filters—truth, kindness and usefulness—and extended with a fourth dimension: intent (malicious, curious, concerned, neutral or compassionate).

Responses are adaptive: truths are gently affirmed; falsehoods are reframed into kinder, wiser language; the uncertain is softened with reflection. Harmful or ambiguous speech is never rejected outright but rewritten to assume good intent and add compassion. After each turn, the stone asks whether to continue, forming a reflective loop.

Rather than recording, the Gossip Stone transforms speech—turning fleeting words into a mindful, caring practice that weaves intimacy, resistance and survival into shared experience.

Features

The Gossip Stone is a speculative object about how we speak and care for one another. It asks how design can show the difference between intimate truth‑sharing and speculative uncertainty—and how that difference matters for collective survival.

Housed inside a real stone, the device holds touch sensors, a speaker, a microphone amplifier and a mini‑computer. Like ancient tools and markings, it acknowledges that gossip and rumor have always shaped human social life.

Scope

When at least two people hold the stone and touch all sensors, it activates, mirroring the intimacy required for gossip. Each spoken fragment is passed through Socrates’ filters—truth, kindness and usefulness—and extended with a fourth dimension: intent (malicious, curious, concerned, neutral or compassionate).

Responses are adaptive: truths are gently affirmed; falsehoods are reframed into kinder, wiser language; the uncertain is softened with reflection. Harmful or ambiguous speech is never rejected outright but rewritten to assume good intent and add compassion. After each turn, the stone asks whether to continue, forming a reflective loop.

Rather than recording, the Gossip Stone transforms speech—turning fleeting words into a mindful, caring practice that weaves intimacy, resistance and survival into shared experience.

Features

The Gossip Stone is a speculative object about how we speak and care for one another. It asks how design can show the difference between intimate truth‑sharing and speculative uncertainty—and how that difference matters for collective survival.

Housed inside a real stone, the device holds touch sensors, a speaker, a microphone amplifier and a mini‑computer. Like ancient tools and markings, it acknowledges that gossip and rumor have always shaped human social life.

Scope

When at least two people hold the stone and touch all sensors, it activates, mirroring the intimacy required for gossip. Each spoken fragment is passed through Socrates’ filters—truth, kindness and usefulness—and extended with a fourth dimension: intent (malicious, curious, concerned, neutral or compassionate).

Responses are adaptive: truths are gently affirmed; falsehoods are reframed into kinder, wiser language; the uncertain is softened with reflection. Harmful or ambiguous speech is never rejected outright but rewritten to assume good intent and add compassion. After each turn, the stone asks whether to continue, forming a reflective loop.

Rather than recording, the Gossip Stone transforms speech—turning fleeting words into a mindful, caring practice that weaves intimacy, resistance and survival into shared experience.

What you don’t see with your eyes - Don’t witness with your mouth

What you don’t see with your eyes - Don’t witness with your mouth

What you don’t see with your eyes - Don’t witness with your mouth