exposure to absurdity may improve the mind
I found this article interesting – new research suggests that exposure to the absurd or irrational may provoke higher levels of thinking – for example, pattern recognition – in humans. The theory appears to be that when confronted with input which breaches the predictive model that our brains have established, we go into overdrive seeking plausible explanations.
Also interesting is that this could sometimes be a counter-productive process:
people in the grip of the uncanny tend to see patterns where none exist — becoming more prone to conspiracy theories, for example. The urge for order satisfies itself, it seems, regardless of the quality of the evidence.
I knew there was a higher purpose to all those hours I spent watching Monty Python.
“Ceci n’est pas une pipe.” (” This is not a pipe.”)
Don’t confuse the finger pointing at the moon with the moon itself! Of course it isn’t a pipe. It is a picture of a pipe pointing to the fact that the picture is not really the pipe.
Care for a little Zen with your coffee?