Why People Believe Invisible Agents Control the World


	Why People Believe Invisible Agents Control the World

einbar

5-28-2009 8:31 AM

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5-28-2009 3:31 PM

aklimento

And there is nobody behind the scene, eh? So calm down and shut up.

Even if is paranoia it does not necessary mean there is absolutely nothing...

5-28-2009 7:35 PM

karstenharder

The Danish DNS filter is blocking this site, saying it is likely to contain child porn ...

5-29-2009 6:28 AM

Kreuzberg-Jakob

I can see them!

5-29-2009 7:25 PM

aklimento

It seems to me sometimes I can see them also. Shadows only...

...and we obediently felling asleep...

5-29-2009 9:08 PM

tanyamm

There really is something or someone out there.

5-30-2009 2:04 AM

chestnut501

Seeing too many patterns that are not actually patterns isn't real healthy, especially if there's some kind of phobia attached to them.

5-30-2009 9:38 PM

aklimento

With bright light of information flow there would be no place for scary shadows and ghosts in our life.

6-3-2009 1:09 PM

Kreuzberg-Jakob

Do you mean this bright light at the end of the tunnel?

6-3-2009 9:46 PM

aklimento

Why not? And this end is just one step away...

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/76d1c911-b471-42bc-8acc-5483788e9cd0/396D1E8D-FBE7-47E2-846F-DC8C083A58B4/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity&amp;page=2" href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity&amp;page=2" style="font-size: 11px;">www.scientificamerican.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity&amp;page=2"><H1>Why People Believe Invisible Agents Control the World</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity&amp;page=2"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.scientificamerican.com/img/33F503FA-883F-4B83-BB2B-4E0A6B2D0B62" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity&amp;page=2">Souls, spirits, ghosts, gods, demons, angels, aliens, intelligent designers, government conspirators, and all manner of invisible agents with power and intention are believed to haunt our world and control our lives. Why?</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity&amp;page=2">The answer has two parts, starting with the concept of “patternicity</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity&amp;page=2">as the human tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity&amp;page=2">The problem is that we did not evolve a baloney-detection device in our brains to discriminate between true and false patterns</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity&amp;page=2">So we make two types of errors: a type I error, or false positive, is believing a pattern is real when it is not; a type II error, or false negative, is not believing a pattern is real when it is</blockquote><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/clip-icon.gif" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity&page=2" href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity&page=2" style="font-size: 11px;">www.scientificamerican.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity&page=2">Many highly educated and intelligent individuals experience a powerful sense that there are patterns, forces</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity&page=2"> such experiences are not substantiated by a body of reliable evidence</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=skeptic-agenticity&page=2"> The inclination or sense that they may be real is our supersense.”</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/396D1E8D-FBE7-47E2-846F-DC8C083A58B4/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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