Apophenia Is the scientific term given to the experience of seeing patterns in random or meaningless information. Michael Shermer calls it “patternicity” and according to him it is a cognitive error. We try to connect the dots from A to B to create meaningful patterns to understand nature and the environment but many times it is fallible. We try to make predictions that aid survival, solve problems and circumstances, but unfortunately our brains do not have a detection network to detect falsehood or fraud. We fail to distinguish between true and false patterns as there is no error detection module hence we are gullible to fraudsters and cheats. It all goes back to evolution. For the deer, the rustle in the tall grass could just be the wind or it could also be a tiger. Natural selection underlies the brain’s inability to detect false patterns. Believing the rustle is the wind could mean a tragic ending as the predator’s prey, so it helps to be cynical than naive. Our brains are basically belief engines and this explains why we are gullible to political and religious indoctrination. We often fall prey to beliefs, faiths, ponzi schemes, charlatans and fraudulent activity as we tend to connect dots to create meanings out of the patterns that we think is part of nature and reality, and in the process make incorrect associations. -Vinay-
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 10:27:12 +0000
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