WORK
“Make a conscious choice. Decide to move your index finger. Too late! The electricity’s already halfway down your arm. Your body began to act a full half-second before your conscious self ‘chose’ to, for the self chose nothing; something else set your body in motion, sent an executive summary—almost an afterthought—to the homunculus behind your eyes. That little man, that arrogant subroutine that thinks of itself as the person, mistakes correlation for causality: it reads the summary and it sees the hand move, and it thinks that one drove the other. But it’s not in charge. You’re not in charge. If free will even exists, it doesn’t share living space with the likes of you.”
—Peter Watts
—from Firefall
WORD(S)
apophenia /a-pə-FEE-nee-ə/. noun. The human tendency to find patterns in random data. Last week’s pareidolia is a specific form of apophenia. For example, gamblers often see illusory patterns in rolls of dice and spins of roulette wheels. Numerology and fortune-telling use (and prey upon) this tendency. From German Apophänie (a coinage used to refer to delusional thinking).
“The same hardwired apophenia that made human beings see the hand of God in the empirical universe also made us hear Him in the electronic shrieking of our tribe.” (Jay Lake)
“Either games are considered to be games—how does chess reveal a narrative?—or else video games are seen as too primitive, perhaps too childish, to be capable of creating the space required for a convincing tale. Looking for storytelling in gaming makes too much of too little, an exercise in apophenia.” (Bryan Alexander)
“A few years ago a message from God was found in a tomato in Yorkshire. […] At least two explanations come to mind. One is that the Supreme Being sees fit to make Himself visible in produce no less than He does in whirlwind and quasar. Another is that those who saw the message experienced apophenia—the tendency to see meaningful patterns and connections where they are not in fact present. ¶ Whatever the truth of that tomato, it is certainly the case that human beings regularly see things which are not there.” (Caspar Henderson)
WEB
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Classic pulp/smut fiction meets librarians, books and readers in this inspired book cover series.
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“When tech culture only celebrates creation, it risks ignoring those who teach, criticize, and take care of others.” Hmmm. There are many problems with this article but it touches on something important I’ve yet to figure out how to articulate. » Why I Am Not a Maker
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The last list like this [The 12 Weirdest, Funniest, Smartest Twitter Bots] was one of the most popular links of the year. So I think you’ll enjoy The Best Twitter Bots of 2015…some ingenious minds at work.
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A Point of View: Is there still any point in collecting books?. Bonus: The author reads his essay. [Via Reader B.]
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Today in 1929, popular journalist, presidential speechwriter, and etymological columnist William Safire is born in New York City. Among many other accomplishments, Safire wrote the “On Language” column in the New York Times Magazine for nearly 30 years, evolving (some would say progressing) over that time from a confirmed prescriptivist and language purist to one more sympathetic to descriptivism and language changes. Whatever his position—and however much one has to hold one’s nose when it comes to his politics—Safire was a good writer who had a fine ear and a keen wit [seriously, “it’s not the teat, it’s the tumidity?”]. Another favorite: “The Yip Harburg rule of agreement: if you’re not near the antecedent you love, you use the antecedent you’re near.”
WATCH/WITNESS
Out of this world, quite literally: The beautiful and mysterious Fukang meteorite
REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES
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Reader S. is in the club: “*makes the secret hand gesture of readers of Peter Watts’ fiction* ¶ Leslie Stevens also directed the wonderfully mad Fanfare for a Death Scene, which had Telly Savalas as the leader of the Golden Horde, Tina Louise as (IIRC) a Circassian princess, Burgess Meredith as an insane trumpet-playing scientist, and Al Hirt because why not?”
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Reader G. remains grateful: “Gratitude might not make us live longer, but it will help us live better. I was also glad for the permission to be my regular grumpy self without fear it might shave a few years off the top…”
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Reader T. finds a comment-section gem: “So, the Offerman video is great, but the comments, particularly the one that provides highlights by time, are truly sublime. I can’t wait to get home tonight and sip the hell out of a wee dram of Ardbeg (it doesn’t flaunt the peat!).”
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