Today, I learned a secret so deep and dark that even *I* did not know it.
Today, I learned that I...
...am part of the Illuminati conspiracy.
You see, I was born on November 23rd.
It all makes sense now, doesn't it? (I wish.)
Personally, I think it has much more to do with my other new thing for the day: apophenia, the tendency to look for patterns in random or meaningless data.
(Which to me, isn't such a bad thing...yeah, the universe is complex and chaotic and the human mind has a tendency to make up explanations for things it doesn't understand, which is how we wound up with myths and superstition, but... without those patten-seekers, how much would we know about the world we live in? After all, the "random" patterns aren't *really* random, all the time... there's some very complex math behind such seemingly random, natural patterns as are found in lightning, sunflowers, and snowflakes. I think there's some pretty sophisticated order going on in the midst of all that disorder. One can't know whether a pattern has inherent meaning or not until some science has been applied to it, and meanwhile, random patterns *are* amusing. (Or it could just be that, as a librarian, I naturally tend to try to classify and organize things. ;) )
The problem lies in assigning deep, hidden meaning to patters that are, say, mere accidents of our own numbering systems and calendars. Would the 23 Enigma work with the Venusian calendar? (Probably, yes, but I'll bet it wouldn't work with the same calendar dates!) Would it work in hexadecimal? (The "0x17 Enigma"? O_o) Conspiracy theorists make me crazy because they defy scientific method and laugh sweet reason all to scorn in the pursuit of their pet notions. They ignore historical record as suspect (which it is, because it's written by people, but it's certainly written by people with LESS of an agenda than the conspiracy theorists), and twist facts into pretzels to suit their preconceived conclusions. And you can never completely refute them, because yes, practically anything IS possible! But that something is *possible* does not make it in any wise *probable.* (And yes, I know. That's exactly what "They" want me to think.) ARGH! I want to take Dan Brown and Kevin Trudeau and bonk their heads together. Seriously, have these people never heard of Occam's Razor? (But of course I would say that, as I am part of the Conspiracy.)
(By the by, a really long parenthetical spinning off the main theme like this is known as an excursus, from the Latin excurrere, "to run out," which is where we get the word "excursion" from. Nice to have you along on the trip.))
Posted by gris at August 27, 2006 02:34 PM