While the printing press ushered in religious wars, but ultimately the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution, our current communications revolution is causing pre-Enlightenment mindsets to spread like wildfire. The belief that "everything happens for a reason," or, "there are no coincidences," leads people to preposterous conclusions, …
While the printing press ushered in religious wars, but ultimately the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution, our current communications revolution is causing pre-Enlightenment mindsets to spread like wildfire. The belief that "everything happens for a reason," or, "there are no coincidences," leads people to preposterous conclusions, where the internet is turning the entire world into Russia, just one big, global zone flooded with shit. Our species is backtracking intellectually while offloading more and more of our cognitive load to machines, and I don't think that ends well.
I am so sick of everything has to be a conspiracy. Sometimes, almost all the time actually, things are exactly what they look like, and no God or secret cabal of Democrats or globalists or terrorists is pulling the strings. People need to get much better at accepting the philosophical wisdom of "Shit Happens." Whatever happened to "Shit Happens?" Did the internet kill it?
One of the most maddening debaters I've worked with is a guy with a physics degree and a: "There are no Coincidences" motto hanging over his desk.
Can readily discuss engineering and chemistry, makes a living manufacturing aircraft parts, believes everything is controlled by supernatural forces, home schools his children..
This. On a long enough timeline, the probability of *anything* goes from 0 to 1. 1-in-a-million odds statistically happen over 300 times a day in our country of 330M. The Law of Truly Large Numbers and Occam's Razor people!:
About 10 years ago, I met a guy who happened to know an acquaintance of mine. As we conversed, I said something to the effect of "Oh...you were part of that group that went Spring camping to the same place every year. Are you still doing that?" And he got very melancholy and said that they were no longer doing that. I asked why and he said because he and this mutual friend of ours had gotten into a big fight about...of all things...Big Foot! This resonated with me because this mutual friend and his daughter were always wearing Big Foot t-shirts and paraphernalia. However...I had never actually inquired deeply about their BF beliefs...assuming it was somewhat tongue-in-cheek and just a cute "dad-daughter thing" together. OH NO...turns out that my friend apparently really does believe in BF and was really appalled that his buddy did not and was basically calling him out for it. The argument and discussion got so personal and deep that they stopped being friends and doing the annual camping trip.
Oh...the classic epilogue of this story is that the guy who believes in BF is a huge MAGA posting crap on FB all of the time. Surprise....surprise...
A big fight about Bigfoot. Hah. Of course the common issue with Bigfoot, and cryptids, and by extension, conspiracy theories, is glaringly insufficient evidence supporting their existence. A popular retort by believers is "prove they don't exist," which is not a valid argument since you can't prove a negative, nor should you even have to do so. The burden of proof lies on those who claim something exists to provide sufficient evidence supporting their claim. But in today's out-of-control disinformation age, making any wild claim without evidence is all the rage.
There may be, but here is what I'd say to them: large fauna that goes extinct tends to leave a fossil record. Fauna of the (purported) size of Bigfoot going extinct so recently would leave behind bodies and skeletons which would be even easier to come across than fossils. But there's nothing.
That would be even harder to believe than the existence of Bigfoot itself, considering it is physically impossible for any terrestrial vertebrate -- let alone a large hominid -- to have a cartilaginous skeleton. :)
Not only does "sh!t happen", but "the more sh!t you've got/you're dealing with (in this case, a 50 YO bridge AND a ship with MILLIONS OF TONS OF KINETIC ENERGY)", the more sh!t is going to happen. Just like with airliner crashes, when you stand back and look at how much has to go right for bad stuff not to happen in an otherwise ruthless environment, its a miracle it doesn't happen more often.
Imagine, if you will, the barren intellectual and lonely self-loathing life of the Internet troll who uses what little brain function they have to produce conspiracy drivel or political dreck about a ship having an accident. We could pity them but they vote and influence others.
Of course, there are random events that change the world. I don’t know when another meteor will wipe away 3/4 of the species on Earth, or if solar flares with blow up all of our electronics. But the storms, fires, heat waves, and droughts on Earth have gotten worse in predictable ways. They only people who are really paying attention are the insurance companies, who don’t want to pay for predictable damages. The fact that there are so many deaths of innocent people in the wars in Ukraine and Israel / Palestine now is not a random evert, it’s the result of too many people unwilling to give up power to solve a problem. Daniel Kahneman died yesterday. He did the best job of explaining how irrational people can get, especially under pressure.
I was thinking something similar to what you wrote Don after reading Andrew's piece about the bridge collapse. Everything, and I mean everything, is a conspiracy now. This can't be good for humanity but I see no way to slow that down anytime soon.
Well said. We can't help it. And in every story there is a villain, to whom we attribute nefarious intentions. I'm a reasons and facts gal, but I understand human behavior enough to know that the story, true or not, gives us a sense of control and therefore comfort.
While the printing press ushered in religious wars, but ultimately the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution, our current communications revolution is causing pre-Enlightenment mindsets to spread like wildfire. The belief that "everything happens for a reason," or, "there are no coincidences," leads people to preposterous conclusions, where the internet is turning the entire world into Russia, just one big, global zone flooded with shit. Our species is backtracking intellectually while offloading more and more of our cognitive load to machines, and I don't think that ends well.
I am so sick of everything has to be a conspiracy. Sometimes, almost all the time actually, things are exactly what they look like, and no God or secret cabal of Democrats or globalists or terrorists is pulling the strings. People need to get much better at accepting the philosophical wisdom of "Shit Happens." Whatever happened to "Shit Happens?" Did the internet kill it?
One of the most maddening debaters I've worked with is a guy with a physics degree and a: "There are no Coincidences" motto hanging over his desk.
Can readily discuss engineering and chemistry, makes a living manufacturing aircraft parts, believes everything is controlled by supernatural forces, home schools his children..
It really makes you scratch your head.
We are all becoming victims of algorithms.
This. On a long enough timeline, the probability of *anything* goes from 0 to 1. 1-in-a-million odds statistically happen over 300 times a day in our country of 330M. The Law of Truly Large Numbers and Occam's Razor people!:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_truly_large_numbers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor
About 10 years ago, I met a guy who happened to know an acquaintance of mine. As we conversed, I said something to the effect of "Oh...you were part of that group that went Spring camping to the same place every year. Are you still doing that?" And he got very melancholy and said that they were no longer doing that. I asked why and he said because he and this mutual friend of ours had gotten into a big fight about...of all things...Big Foot! This resonated with me because this mutual friend and his daughter were always wearing Big Foot t-shirts and paraphernalia. However...I had never actually inquired deeply about their BF beliefs...assuming it was somewhat tongue-in-cheek and just a cute "dad-daughter thing" together. OH NO...turns out that my friend apparently really does believe in BF and was really appalled that his buddy did not and was basically calling him out for it. The argument and discussion got so personal and deep that they stopped being friends and doing the annual camping trip.
Oh...the classic epilogue of this story is that the guy who believes in BF is a huge MAGA posting crap on FB all of the time. Surprise....surprise...
A big fight about Bigfoot. Hah. Of course the common issue with Bigfoot, and cryptids, and by extension, conspiracy theories, is glaringly insufficient evidence supporting their existence. A popular retort by believers is "prove they don't exist," which is not a valid argument since you can't prove a negative, nor should you even have to do so. The burden of proof lies on those who claim something exists to provide sufficient evidence supporting their claim. But in today's out-of-control disinformation age, making any wild claim without evidence is all the rage.
Huh, cryptids generally seem like pretty innocuous conspiracy theories too...
I wonder if there are any bigfoot believers that think it existed but when extinct within the last 50ish years? That would be an interesting twist.
There may be, but here is what I'd say to them: large fauna that goes extinct tends to leave a fossil record. Fauna of the (purported) size of Bigfoot going extinct so recently would leave behind bodies and skeletons which would be even easier to come across than fossils. But there's nothing.
But... Hear me out... What if Bigfoots have cartilaginous skeletons that decompose quickly and don't fossilize very well?
That's right. Bigfoot's feet are floppy. Checkmate biologists. 🤣
That would be even harder to believe than the existence of Bigfoot itself, considering it is physically impossible for any terrestrial vertebrate -- let alone a large hominid -- to have a cartilaginous skeleton. :)
Fits: MAGA and Big Foot ... and TFG is JC, Superstar re-incarnate.
TBH, if I really believed in Big Foot, I would NEVER go camping. Bears are bad enough, but Big Foots (Big Feet?)? No way man. Count me out.
Not only does "sh!t happen", but "the more sh!t you've got/you're dealing with (in this case, a 50 YO bridge AND a ship with MILLIONS OF TONS OF KINETIC ENERGY)", the more sh!t is going to happen. Just like with airliner crashes, when you stand back and look at how much has to go right for bad stuff not to happen in an otherwise ruthless environment, its a miracle it doesn't happen more often.
Imagine, if you will, the barren intellectual and lonely self-loathing life of the Internet troll who uses what little brain function they have to produce conspiracy drivel or political dreck about a ship having an accident. We could pity them but they vote and influence others.
Of course, there are random events that change the world. I don’t know when another meteor will wipe away 3/4 of the species on Earth, or if solar flares with blow up all of our electronics. But the storms, fires, heat waves, and droughts on Earth have gotten worse in predictable ways. They only people who are really paying attention are the insurance companies, who don’t want to pay for predictable damages. The fact that there are so many deaths of innocent people in the wars in Ukraine and Israel / Palestine now is not a random evert, it’s the result of too many people unwilling to give up power to solve a problem. Daniel Kahneman died yesterday. He did the best job of explaining how irrational people can get, especially under pressure.
I finished Thinking,Fast and Slow just a couple of weeks ago. Relevant to so many current events and of course elections.
I was not aware that Kahneman had passed :(
I was thinking something similar to what you wrote Don after reading Andrew's piece about the bridge collapse. Everything, and I mean everything, is a conspiracy now. This can't be good for humanity but I see no way to slow that down anytime soon.
Are you part of a conspiracy to make us think that NOT everything is a conspiracy when we conspiracy-theorists know that it is??? 😉😉😉
🤣 🤣
Dang, you figured me out! 😉
Kaching, ring the bell!!!🥂
For better or worse, we are a storytelling, pattern-seeking species. A compelling story will beat a boring fact every single time.
Well said. We can't help it. And in every story there is a villain, to whom we attribute nefarious intentions. I'm a reasons and facts gal, but I understand human behavior enough to know that the story, true or not, gives us a sense of control and therefore comfort.