Have you heard the one about the Children of Israel suing Moses in a
patternicity suit? said the drunk bishop to the actress. 'No', said the
actress, 'poor things, couldn't they afford any clothes?'
On 27 August 2012 05:46, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> All readings of political polls seem to be examples of apophenic
> behaviour, Max, but good to see Abbot taking a bit of a plunge this morning.
>
> On 27/08/2012, at 12:13 PM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Apophenia
> > From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> > Apophenia is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections
> in random or meaningless data.
> > The term was coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad,[1] who defined it as the
> "unmotivated seeing of connections" accompanied by a "specific experience
> of an abnormal meaningfulness", but it has come to represent the human
> tendency to seek patterns in random information in general (such as with
> gambling), paranormal phenomena, and religion.[2]
> > Meanings and forms
> >
> > Conrad originally described this phenomenon in relation to the
> distortion of reality present in psychosis, but it has become more widely
> used to describe this tendency without necessarily implying the presence of
> neurological differences or mental illness.
> > In 2008, Michael Shermer coined the word 'patternicity', defining it as
> "the tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise."[3][4] In
> The Believing Brain (2011), Shermer defines patternicity as "the tendency
> to find meaningful patterns in both meaningful and meaningless noise." The
> Believing Brain thesis also says that we have "the tendency to infuse
> patterns with meaning, intention, and agency", which Shermer calls
> 'agenticity'.[5]
> > [edit]Statistics
> > In statistics, apophenia is known as a Type I error - the identification
> of false patterns in data.[6] It may be compared with a so called false
> positive in other test situations.
> > [edit]Paranormal phenomena
> > A common example of perceived, but non-existent pattern are paranormal
> sightings, including sightings of ghosts, Unidentified Flying Objects,
> cryptozoology, etc., which may be due to apophenia.[citation needed]
> > [edit]Conspiracy theories
> > Main article: Conspiracy theory
> > Likewise conspiracy theorists are famously prone to identify a (perhaps
> coincidental) pattern, and conclude that it must have great
> significance,[7] although things that are important, life-changing, and
> even catastrophic, can occur simply out of random chance.
> > [edit]Religion
> > The attempt to foretell the future, present, or past by finding patterns
> in animal entrails, tossed sticks, or by picking random passages from a
> holy text are often cited as examples of apophenia. A more extreme example
> is the pareidolia associated with finding the faces of religious figures in
> pieces of toast, the grain of cut wood, or other such patterns.[8]
> > Recent real-world examples include the finding of a cross inside a
> halved potato;[9] the appearance of Jesus and Mary inside a halved
> orange;[10] and the appearance of Jesus' face on a piece of toast,[11] in
> the frost on a car window,[12] and inside the lid of a jar of Marmite.[13]
> >
>
--
David Joseph Bircumshaw
**
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
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