The X Factor

A World on the Brink

The mystery of X.

Recall the X Factor, a show by Simon Cowell.

There X means “star quality.”

This is not what I mean.

I asked Chat GPT whether, “Evil has an element we know not — X as unknown?

It replied:

You’re tapping into the symbolic power of X — the classical stand-in for the unknown, the hidden variable in equations, mysteries, and even in identity (e…