Michael Shermer's Apophenia As Patternicity

When Michael Shermer states that we are pattern-seeking animals, he is trying to say that it is an inherent trait that all of us have and that we are conditioned to find patterns in everything whether they are real or not. There are multiple definitions of a pattern; for this essay the operational definitions of a pattern will be- A. a regular form of reoccurrence of an event and B. something that establishes a cause and effect relationship. Michael Shermer explains and re-states ‘Apophenia’ as Patternicity through his Ted Talk- “Patternicity is the tendency to find meaningful patterns in both meaningful and meaningless noise.” (Shermer) we have evolved in such a way that we can perceive patterns in everything, this can be because we are cognitively …show more content…
As a mathematics studies student, I detested mathematics and would think why even would someone invent an ‘IMAGINARY NUMBER’?? until my teacher explained me the concept of Imaginary numbers and the pattern within it- The creation of imaginary numbers has been dated back to the time of Christ when Greek mathematician Heron of Alexandria first perceived the imaginary number ‘i’ for 1600 years mathematicians tried to understand the concept of imaginary numbers and finally in the 16th century Rafael Bombelli (“Who invented imaginary numbers”) described the rules for the use of complex or ‘imaginary’ numbers. While there is no actual value to the imaginary numbers- there is a pattern occurring within these imaginary numbers- when i is given any power it the answer will always be either 1, i , -1, or -i. It may confuse most of us non-mathematicians- Although the imaginary pattern of imaginary numbers is non-real; the concept of Imaginary numbers helps mathematicians explain concepts through mathematical equations. This knowledge is also used in electrical engineering. This concept helps us understand how mathematicians invent non-real patterns to generate knowledge. This also helps us understand the answer to the question- “Do mathematicians perceive patterns in the real world or …show more content…
let us just consider this -while Pattern seeking can be a useful tool, it can lead to unforeseen consequences as well. Especially in the Human Sciences; where knowledge is mostly uncertain. Not only can the obsessive need to seek patterns hamper knowledge but also can lead psychologists into indulging in unethical practices- one of the most unethical, and dreadful study we’d learned was that of Philip Zimbardo who went out of the way just to observe the pattern of how Humans behave when they have the authority. The study aimed to investigate how social roles affect human behavior. ("How Zimbardo's Prison Experiment Reveals Social Roles' Effect On People's Behavior.") Zimbardo’s study involved one group of participants to play the role of prisoners and the other group to play the role of guards. While the prisoners were forced to wear chains and dirty prison clothes, the guards were given police costumes, batons and sunglasses. Although this was just a role-playing experiment it soon got out of hand and was progressively becoming sadistic from the guards; on the second day of the study one of the participants developed a ‘psychosomatic’ rash because of denied parole but Zimbardo persisted- as he wished to seek a pattern and went on with the study for 6 entire days of the 14-day study until it finally had to be shut down because of the potential harm that could be caused and was caused to the participants. Often, we seek