Take a look at this: What does this look like? Sure, it’s an electrical outlet, but do you see a shocked face? Doesn’t it look like they want nothing to do with that impending plug? This is a form of apophenia, the very human tendency to see patterns in things that aren’t really there. Apophenia shows up all over the place: you might see what looks like a predictable pattern in the throw of the craps dice in Vegas, or you might find a correlation between astrological signs and events in your own life.
I'm shocked. Why did you share a sexually explicit image of Spider-Man?! Did you think calling it "Rorschach ink blot" would fool us?!
I definitely have a strong case of pareidolia - faces are haunting me every day in every corner. (But that could just be my wife and kids, now that I think about it.)
I used to draw faces every day, pretty much nonstop, when I was a kid. Contour line drawings were the fastest and easiest, and they were pretty cool looking.
I have many thoughts on this topic but I think I'll save them for a longer response post. But the short and skinny is that I took a course on Ralph Waldo Emerson in college and was introduced to a similar idea used by Native American scouts. They were very aware that the mind would fill-in visual gaps for casual glances at terrain ahead. Basically you'd see what you would expect to see. But when you slowed down and looked for longer, the vision would shift to what was actually there. I think about that a lot these days.
If you think about it when making this post, gimme a tag. I'll probably see it anyway, but if I remember a little of this conversation I'll be able to hop in and talk about this right away. FWIW, that sounds like it could be really interesting.
“There are only patterns, patterns on top of patterns, patterns that affect other patterns. Patterns hidden by patterns. Patterns within patterns. If you watch close, history does nothing but repeat itself. What we call chaos is just patterns we haven’t recognized. What we call random is just patterns we can’t decipher.“ - Palahniuk
I would share the perspective of one professor of mine. He proposed the theory that we do not only see with our brains, but our souls, and our hearts. That each see something different. The heart wants to feel we see something, the brain wants to rationalize based on what its current knowledge library is, and the soul witnesses spiritual imprints or the otherworldly/interdimentional.
I'm shocked. Why did you share a sexually explicit image of Spider-Man?! Did you think calling it "Rorschach ink blot" would fool us?!
I definitely have a strong case of pareidolia - faces are haunting me every day in every corner. (But that could just be my wife and kids, now that I think about it.)
I used to draw faces every day, pretty much nonstop, when I was a kid. Contour line drawings were the fastest and easiest, and they were pretty cool looking.
I once copied a "How to" video for preschoolers that showed how to draw Santa step by step. It came out pretty great!
And when I say "once," I mean a month ago for Xmas 2023.
Yeah, but did Santa have a face?
It was all face. The entire image was Santa's face. My nightmares are Santa's face now. Please help!
Luckily for you, I just wrote this article about seeing faces in things. I think you're good!
ummm... that's called arachnopervedolia.
I have it with traffic lights: I see a shocked face when the red light is on and a grinning one when the green light is on.
That is a helpful heuristic!
I have many thoughts on this topic but I think I'll save them for a longer response post. But the short and skinny is that I took a course on Ralph Waldo Emerson in college and was introduced to a similar idea used by Native American scouts. They were very aware that the mind would fill-in visual gaps for casual glances at terrain ahead. Basically you'd see what you would expect to see. But when you slowed down and looked for longer, the vision would shift to what was actually there. I think about that a lot these days.
If you think about it when making this post, gimme a tag. I'll probably see it anyway, but if I remember a little of this conversation I'll be able to hop in and talk about this right away. FWIW, that sounds like it could be really interesting.
That's an interesting point, that this phenomenon can lead to quite serious and severe mistakes and misunderstandings.
If we can see a man in the moon, we can draw incorrect conclusions from looking at data, at a minimum, and we are very easy to fool.
After I pour my tea, I post photos on Insta of the tealeaves when they form what looks like a face. I call them "Teamoji".
In another era, Teamoji would have been used to make important investing or family reproductive decisions.
I'm reminded of the "face" people saw in images of Mars a few years back
Yeah, that's up there with Grilled Cheese Virgin Mary.
“There are only patterns, patterns on top of patterns, patterns that affect other patterns. Patterns hidden by patterns. Patterns within patterns. If you watch close, history does nothing but repeat itself. What we call chaos is just patterns we haven’t recognized. What we call random is just patterns we can’t decipher.“ - Palahniuk
I would share the perspective of one professor of mine. He proposed the theory that we do not only see with our brains, but our souls, and our hearts. That each see something different. The heart wants to feel we see something, the brain wants to rationalize based on what its current knowledge library is, and the soul witnesses spiritual imprints or the otherworldly/interdimentional.