I was trying to tell someone about this word yesterday and I couldnt
remember it
seeing meaningful patterns in a fading memory
L
On Thu, August 30, 2012 12:24, Max Richards wrote:
> Good for Danah Boyd, the versatile and eloquent…
> Glad to be told of her.
>
>
> the word is much used in the impressive Waking up in Toytown, a memoir
> by John Burnside.
>
> p.139 my natural tendency to apophenia p.170 A lunatic night, sleepless and
> full of wild imaginings,the complete apophenic kitbag: noises, visions,
> and, as the dawn broke, those terrifying transformations in the body when
> it seems everything is about to be ripped apart. p.215 Apophenia is usually
> talked about in a context of excess sensitivity, which would make the
> apophenic symptomatic of some wider malaise...
>
> On 27/08/2012, at 1:07 PM, Uche Ogbuji wrote:
>
>
>> Apophenia is also the name of Dr. Danah Boyd's brilliant research
>> Weblog,
>> which I've frequently been tempted to cite on this list:
>>
>> http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/
>>
>>
>> --Uche
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Aug 26, 2012 at 8:13 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]
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Uche Ogbuji http://uche.ogbuji.net
>> Founding Partner, Zepheira http://zepheira.com
>> http://wearekin.org
>> http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/author/uogbuji/
>> http://copia.ogbuji.net
>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/ucheogbuji
>> http://twitter.com/uogbuji
>>
>
-----
Lawrence Upton
http://sho-zyg.com/upton.html
Visiting Fellow, Music Dept,
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross, London SE14 6NW
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