Evolutionary Misfire #1
09 Mar 2009 09:08 PM JournalI visited Houston last week and have some awesome Rowan photos. Some are up already here. But before that something a little different this time. I’m not really one for re-posting stuff that’s already been posted somewhere else. That is why these posts tend to be more about me, someone who no one else is writing about! I, like most people, have a few “signature” issues. Whenever I hear or see anything related, I HAVE to jump in and talk about it. Maybe because I’ll probably disagree with everyone, which is fun. (“We need completely open borders” and crazy positions like that) So I saw this comic from xkcd.
I have this idea that the human population have only about 3 or 4 root problems. These are evolutionary misfires which result in, I think, all of our problems. Religion, War, Drugs, evil corporations, whatever. This comic awesomely illustrates one of these ideas. These 3 or 4 “evolutionary misfire’s” are a part of almost all of my bar/alcohol talk, so when I see these things come from someone other than me, I get excited! Just to be annoyingly clear and to conclude this in bold, this particular misfire is that Humans tend to confuse causation with correlation.
Son of a Gun perhaps we do agree on something! It does seem that the perception of correlation “that of having some relationship or association” does lead many “particularly in the media” to claim that because of that association that the issue being referred to caused the specific result….. Wow what a leap……
The best Dear old Dad