23 Apr
2012
23 Apr
'12
2:05 a.m.
On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 10:17, Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> wrote:
On 2012 Apr 22, at 10:11 PM, Dave McGuire wrote:
Totally agree. Humans are great at pattern recognition (to such a
degree that we have many false positives) and at self-deception. This
has become a quite popular subject with neuroscientists, and not just
(one hopes) so they can get magicians to perform at their conference
banquets.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Teller-Reveals-His-Secrets.html?…
http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v9/n11/full/nrn2473.html
Joe.
--
Joachim Thiemann :: http://jthiem.bitbucket.org
?This is one thing that's quite backwards
about our society. ?"I saw it
with my own friggin' eyes" is discounted as "not necessarily true or
reliable".
?That is just plain fucked up.
No, it's not. People lie, fabricate, embellish and misrepresent.
If you've been on one side of a legal or other matter you may have found it
frustrating not to be believed on your word, but if you've been on the
target end of other people's lies you'll very much appreciate for their
version (an anecdote) NOT being taken as "necessarily true or reliable".
People - even if sincere - also confuse, conflate, misinterpret and
misunderstand. Even if you really, truly believe you saw it with your own
friggin' eyes, it still may not be an accurate or complete version of an
event.
Not only is this a basic tenet of modern justice systems, it's the basis of
scientific inquiry.