Thank you to Kim for today's word, which is apophenia. This means assigning patterns, connections and meaning to random and unrelated phenomena, coined back in 1958 by Klaus Conrad, according to the Wikipedia. It can be, according to this source, accompanied by a "specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness".
The real problem with this word is in distinguishing between phenomena which are random and unrelated, and those which are meaningfully connected, to paraphrase the definition. This topic is a prolific one for bloggers, as a blog search will show, because what is also called "faulty pattern recognition" is a common phenomenon. Or perhaps that phenomenon itself is an example of faulty pattern recognition, because the reality is that things are interconnected in multiple ways that we don't understand? I guess abnormal meaningfulness and abnormal meaninglessness are both concepts to juggle with, and our natural (and healthy) preference is to find meaning in things.
There was a blog post by Evan Maloney last week on this topic which provoked a small avalanche comments about similar experiences. Maloney points out that "Jung first presented the notion of the meaningful coincidence, or synchronicity, in a quasi-scientific way. Jung believed there was a causal principle that linked seemingly random events."
And Kurt Vonnegut coined a word for apparently meaningful patterns which are in fact meaningless - granfalloon, "a group of people who outwardly choose or claim to have a shared identity or purpose, but whose mutual association is actually meaningless in terms of fulfilling God's design." These are "associations and societies based on a shared but ultimately fabricated premise." As examples, Vonnegut cites "the Communist Party, . . . the General Electric Company, the International Order of Odd Fellows - and any nation, anytime, anywhere."
We mostly prefer meaningful to meaningless, even if the former is just a coincidence which charms and delights us. Except for scary coincidences - they are just examples of faulty pattern recognition.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Derek Whitehead
What this blog is for
This is a blog which started in 2007 when I was standing for election as vice president of ALIA (the Australian Library and Information Association) - to communicate with members and canvas issues. It also continued during my year as president, which ended in May 2009.
It morphed into a more general blog, and I used it to communicate on a variety of issues - libraries, copyright, the internet, but particularly, just words. Over time, it became a blog mainly about language.
It morphed into a more general blog, and I used it to communicate on a variety of issues - libraries, copyright, the internet, but particularly, just words. Over time, it became a blog mainly about language.
It lapsed in 2012 but I have decided to revive it, and it will be about language and maybe sometimes some other things. Neologisms are unavoidable and an endless source of interest and fun. Talking with a bilingual person, and attempting to learn a language, I have also become more vividly aware of the confusing strangeness of many idioms. I will post about idioms later.
Please promote it to your friends. My short-term goal is to attract a second follower, but I have longer term goals too.
Links
About Me
- Derek Whitehead
- Melbourne, Australia
- Derek is an Adjunct Professor at Swinburne University of Technology and at RMIT University, and the Chair of the Australian Digital Alliance. He retired in January 2015 as CIO and Director, Information Technology Services at Swinburne, and has had a long career as a librarian and copyright officer. He has had a long engagement with the internet since his involvement in the establishment of the pioneering Vicnet service in 1994. Derek was awarded an OAM in 2002 for services to libraries and the internet.
2 comments:
The doyen of language bloggers Languagehat has remarked on your blog, Derek:
www.languagehat.com/archives/002805.php
And he draws attention to a particularly interesting discussion of apophenia in 2005:
www.languagehat.com/archives/001804.php
Best wishes to you, and every success to your blog.
Thank you noetica - I had a look at the comprehensive coverage of apophenia at the languagehat archive. I was impressed by his statement of the human condition - "doomed to see meaning in every damned thing."
Post a Comment