5 Clues in Word Search

Imperfect Past & Future Box thinking

The author describes how there are five steps required to open the Past & Future puzzle box mechanism. The idea of there being five clues hidden in the word search (or perhaps 5 clues total needed to solve the entire treasure puzzle) tracks well to me. But what could those five clues be?

First of all, I am willing to accept that a message of “There are five clues in this word search” is scrambled and hidden across rows 2-4 in the word search. I am not satisfied with the/my rationale for which O’s to include vs. not include in order to be “left” with just these letters, but I accept that there could be some clearer rationale that emerges later. Right now, letters that are not part of easily identified words are left in yellow (I’m including SOLO and LEMON in my word list); the exceptions re on the right near LIAR/RAIL and the scrambled WORD SEARCH. I also don’t like how “FIVE CLUES” is two words scrambled all together (WORD SEARCH, if you use the rightmost O at least keeps the letters together).

Anyhow, let’s assume this is a message intended to help approach the word search but not a treasure-finding clue. I wonder if a simple “grouping” of easily identified words might be their direction. If “diagonal” is its own category, then there are 5 possible directions that have multiple words oriented in those ways:

• LEFT→RIGHT

• RIGHT→LEFT

• TOP→BOTTOM

• BOTTOM→TOP

• DIAGONAL

I Here are the words that I see grouped by these categories:

LEFT→RIGHT

• Nineteen

• Nine

• Round

• Liar

• Line

• Square

• Quarry

• Five

• Sapphire

RIGHT→LEFT

• Lilac

• Rail

• North

• Water

• State

• Estate

• West

• Peak(s)

• Walk

• Dirt

• Three

• Zero(s)

• Twelve

TOP→BOTTOM

• Count

• Three

• Eleven

• Rams

• Tutu

• Even

BOTTOM→TOP

• Tone

• Yeoman

• Coke

• Hiss

• Solo

DIAGONAL

• Lemon

• State

• Estate

• Divide

• Ohio

• Dose

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I like this approach because it gives permission to use letters in more than one word when they overlap (for example NINE and NINETEEN, STATE and ESTATE). The BOTTOM→UP word list seems the least promising (is that the “upset”?). Part of me wonders if the author didn’t realize that he had created some words in that direction.

One thing that I like using ChatGPT/AI for is coming up with many variations on the same concept. I find these tools to be helpful ideation partners far more than a solution finders. I took the first list (LEFT→RIGHT) and asked it to construct a clue using a minimal amount of additional information. Here is what it came up with:

Start at nineteen, move to five, then to nine; mark the round and the square, cross the line by the liar, and end at the quarry with the sapphire.

Now I am not booking a flight somewhere just based on this, but I do like the idea of how to use the numbers, the shapes, and the more specific objects (quarry and sapphire). As someone with limited experience with treasure hunting, it’s helpful to expand my ways of interpreting or placing found information from the book.

I think there are also some creative groupings - for example, if you accept “RAMS” and “TUTU” as intentional words, there could be a school/college with the RAMS as their team name that also has a ballet/dance program, or a space where both sports and performing arts take place.

Or another example (DIAGONAL), while there isn’t a formally named “LEMON STATE”, California is sometimes known as the “Citrus State”. Throw in Ohio, and the fact that Columbus, OH is a key location in Ready Player One, and confirmation bias can lead you to Columbia, CA - a town with lots of history around the California Gold Rush. And this area is within range of the Lake Tahoe region (and more broadly, the Sierra Nevada range which does span both CA and NV - I like this as a general area for this box).

Of course, there are lots of rabbit holes that one (I) can go down by making up associations like this, but this kind of structure would fit under the category of “too easy”.