Intelligence Meridian × Mocking MediaThe Companion

A critical thinking app · V2

It never tells you who is right.

Bring a claim. An article, a headline, something someone just said. The Companion makes you think first, then helps you check. You keep your own judgment. You get better at using it.

How it works

1

You first.

How likely is it true? What kind of claim is it? One line on why. You answer before the app does.

2

Then the moves.

Restate it. Name the evidence. Follow the incentive. Ask the base rate. Ask what would change your mind.

3

Then the check.

One place to look. Two minutes. The search is already written. Questions for them, and for you.

Three ways in

Live

Someone just said it.

Type what they said. Commit. Get what would have to be true, where to check, and what to ask. Mid-conversation, on your phone.

The desk

You and an article.

Six moves, one sentence each. Mark each answer R (read) or W (worked out). End with a number.

The table

Two people, one phone.

Each answers alone. Then both answers side by side, with the questions a good host asks.

Why it is built this way

Four findings. Four rules.

Students with an answer machine scored higher in practice and lower on the test. So the app never gives the answer.Bastani 2024
Committing before the machine speaks cuts over-reliance. So you commit first.Buçinca 2021
A reason only helps if checking it is faster than reading it. So every reason ships with a two-minute check.Vasconcelos 2023
Experts lost a skill to AI and did not notice. So once a week, you run a claim without the app.Budzyń 2025

All fourteen rules

Who it is for

Everyone at the table.

Built for pairs: a grandparent and a grandchild, a parent and a teen, two neighbors who vote differently. Short on purpose. Works on one phone. Nobody is the student.

What it will never do

  • Tell you a claim is true or false.
  • Answer before you commit.
  • Check only the other person. Your position goes on the desk too.
  • Make you more suspicious. It makes you better at checking.

Who built it

Intelligence Meridian (Palmer Foote) with Mocking Media (Arielle Pink, Luis Gracia). It grew out of a paper we are writing on what AI does to the people who use it. The research behind every rule is in the reading room. Notes go in the workshop.