{"id":19863,"date":"2018-11-02T10:32:54","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T14:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/?p=19863"},"modified":"2018-11-02T10:32:54","modified_gmt":"2018-11-02T14:32:54","slug":"apophenia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/archives\/19863","title":{"rendered":"Apophenia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hold on tight &#8211; this is going to be more than a little tangential. After writing the Curta\/Rohloff post yesterday, I was seized by a desire to re-read <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2CZ7bUu\">Pattern Recognition<\/a>. So I did! When I got a hundred or so pages in, I had a little shock of recognition myself:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Pattern Recognition Cornell Box\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/doncoyote\/44765403355\/in\/dateposted\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4804\/44765403355_8861d9fa25_z.jpg\" alt=\"Pattern Recognition Cornell Box\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Recognition, because the book on the top of my nightstand stack is Simic on Cornell.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Simic on Cornell\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/doncoyote\/31807307498\/in\/dateposted\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1946\/31807307498_2148a2cf0b_z.jpg\" alt=\"Simic on Cornell\" width=\"360\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m moderately confident that this is pattern recognition gone wrong &#8211; and there&#8217;s a word for that!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Pattern Recognition Ch 12\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/doncoyote\/43861697780\/in\/dateposted\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4852\/43861697780_cdaa6c16fc_z.jpg\" alt=\"Pattern Recognition Ch 12\" width=\"640\" height=\"542\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div class=\"row vg-header\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<h2>Definition of\u00a0<em>apophenia\u00a0<\/em><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"vg\">\n<div class=\"sb no-sn\">\n<p class=\"sense no-subnum\"><span class=\"dt \"><span class=\"dtText\"><strong class=\"mw_t_bc\">:\u00a0<\/strong>the tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated or random things (such as objects or ideas)<a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/apophenia\">*<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Good for a laugh, but pattern recognition and its evil twin are near and dear to my heart. K asked recently if i was a &#8216;spotter&#8217; &#8211; one of those people who see stuff in the woods before anyone else does, or when no one else sees the thing at all. I allowed as I probably was, but that I wasn&#8217;t sure if my skill extended outside of the northeastern US. I&#8217;ve written about what I tend to call <a href=\"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/archives\/3377\">&#8216;native vision&#8217; before<\/a> (while talking about the Blue Ant books!) ; it&#8217;s a central plot line, as far as I&#8217;m concerned, in a top 5 movie &#8211; Kurosawa&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0071411\/\">Dersu Uzala<\/a>. An aside &#8211; honing my spotter skills in different biomes is a Big Bike Ride goal.<\/p>\n<p>Another bit of characterization in Pattern Recognition caught my eye, too. Boone Chu, Cayce Pollard&#8217;s computer security sidekick,has a bit of Mod fun, riding a scooter wearing a fishtail parka emblazoned with an RAF roundel*.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I ride a G.S. scooter with my hair cut neat<br \/>\nI wear my wartime coat in the wind and sleet<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; I&#8217;ve Had Enough\/Quadrophenia\/The Who<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Sometime during the reading I called up some tunes from Quadrophenia on the hi-fi, and noticed the title&#8217;s suffix. Because I was already thinking about apophenia, the lack of an R (it&#8217;s not Quadrophrenia!) struck me &#8211; esp since Jimmy, the protagonist, is presented as having 4 personalities. With an R:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3><span id=\"Suffix\" class=\"mw-headline\">Suffix<\/span><span class=\"mw-editsection\"><span class=\"mw-editsection-bracket\">[<\/span><a title=\"Edit section: Suffix\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/w\/index.php?title=-phrenia&amp;action=edit&amp;section=3\">edit<\/a><span class=\"mw-editsection-bracket\">]<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><strong class=\"Latn headword\" lang=\"en\">-phrenia<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a title=\"mental\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/mental\">mental<\/a>\u00a0<a title=\"disorder\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/disorder\">disorder<\/a>.<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/-phrenia\">*<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Coming up with a definition for the sans-R suffix, -phenia, is a little trickier. One idea is that it \/should\/ have been apophrenia and the dropped R is a mistake. But I like this idea:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230;if the word derives from \u201capo\u201d and another Greek word, \u201cphainein\u201d [&#8230;] meaning \u201cto make appear,\u201d then\u00a0<strong>apophenia\u00a0<\/strong>is correct after all.<a href=\"https:\/\/etyman.wordpress.com\/2010\/01\/29\/apophenia-aep%C9%92%CB%88finij%C9%99\/\">*<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The suffix works nicely with Quadrophenia &#8211; it was recorded during the heyday of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Quadraphonic_sound\">quadraphonic sound systems<\/a> &#8211; and though apparently the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quadraphonicquad.com\/forums\/index.php?threads\/the-who-quadrophenia-qs-quad-mix.1798\/#post-10453\">vinyl was never quad<\/a>, I remember a ton of pre-relase marketing noise bruiting Quadrophenia as quad sound&#8217;s full realization. &#8220;Making quad appear&#8221; works!<\/p>\n<p>And finally. a chapter title from Pattern Recognition that wraps up The Who, the Big Bike Ride and pulling meaning from coincidence up in a neat bow.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Pattern Recognition Ch 16\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/doncoyote\/30739112207\/in\/photostream\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1952\/30739112207_58ca5ebbfe_z.jpg\" alt=\"Pattern Recognition Ch 16\" width=\"640\" height=\"493\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>* They&#8217;re called roundels damnit, NOT TARGETS<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hold on tight &#8211; this is going to be more than a little tangential. After writing the Curta\/Rohloff post yesterday, I was seized by a desire to re-read Pattern Recognition. So I did! When I got a hundred or so &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/archives\/19863\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-books","category-language"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqxx-5an","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19863"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19869,"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19863\/revisions\/19869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}