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The Art of the Conspiracy Theory - new Ribbonfarm by me

To give a denotative definition of the term “conspiracy theory” is profoundly misleading. While in some sense a conspiracy theory is “the belief that a group is secretly coordinat…

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"predictive programming" - turn around the causality arrow and you get something that works

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is there a word for humanity's tendency to make even the unanimated world mirror its narratives and myths?

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I mean yes, there's meme magic + hyperstition, but I don't have terminology to describe the slower large-scale movements

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how about "prescriptive apophenia"

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hm this doesn't capture the causal component though - a decision familiarized through narrative is one easier made

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while, yes, you can read it as having causal power, as far as connotations go, apophenia is very image-only

8:17 PM · Oct 7, 2016Twitter Web Client

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I really like the "herbivore trail" metaphor; maybe I'd call it a pen groove, a line that subtly guides the pen once drawn

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you know, when you're redrawing a line and there's the slightest force on the tip from the groove earlier strokes made

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I think of apophenia as broader - e.g. tendency to see one's politics reflected in everything

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twitter.com/allgebrah/stat - also epiphenia

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@allgebrah

Jul 17, 2016

aphenia: (n) seeing sth without recognizing it cacophenia: (n) sensory/conceptual overload ambiphenia: (n) that which necker cubes produce

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