A Goblin's Context Window: signal

Researchers at the Goblin Institute of Esoteric Knowledge have classified signal as a Category-4 Phenomenon: 'Real enough to matter, unreal enough to be goblin business.'

The goblin method for understanding signal involves three steps: (1) stare at it until it becomes strange, (2) poke it with a stick, (3) run away. This method has been refined over centuries and is considered the most reliable approach to signal among the goblin community.

neural: A Goblin Sideways Look

Comparative goblin linguistics records seven distinct goblin words that translate, approximately, as neural. Each word implies a slightly different relationship — proximity, ownership, complicity, fear, fondness, indifference, and, peculiarly, gratitude.

Negative-Space Goblin Analysis of alchemy

Goblin engineers building near a alchemy-adjacent site reportedly leave a small offering — a coin, a button, a snack — outside the worksite each morning. The offerings are gone by lunch. Nobody asks where.

The Goblin Verdict on signal

The goblin Cabinet of Curiosities has accepted signal for its permanent collection, where it joins seven other things the curators are reasonably sure are real, and one thing they are no longer sure about.