On Apophenia and such things
This is “smartDOT”.
A stickable disc with a mystical design. The company that makes them, “Energydots”, claims that this is a revolutionary device that can reduce the impact of EMFs on you and the stress that comes with It.
Further, they add:
“..While we are strong advocates of the digital detox, it’s not always easy to switch off. That’s why we’ve created EMF protection device, smartDOT, which is programmed to retune electromagnetic frequencies (EMF) emitted by your wireless devices. This, in turn, has been reported to help us to feel more energised, better focussed and less stressed. Affix a smartDOT to your favourite gadgets…”
They have more products. bioDOT, sleepDOT, aquaDOT, spaceDOT..and even petDOT — each one is a similar sticker/disc but in different colors, meant to reduce the harm caused by EMFs for a specific purpose as the name implies. (‘bio’ for watches, pendants and the likes, ‘sleep’ for sleep related items like pillows or mats, ‘aqua’ for water bottles, ‘space’ for outdoor items like tents, and yes ‘pet’ for dog collars and similar items).
But the thing that connects them all is the design pattern they have so consciously chosen to use. Symmetric and hypnotic. But no real meaning.
According to University of Surrey, these stickers don’t have any effect on anything, leave alone EMF. They are just stickers with patterns. Even though the company claims that these stickers were made with “scalar energy”, the university wasn’t able to detect anything.
Fun Fact: In Nov 2019, this company claimed that they forged a partnership with NHS to convert two of the hospitals into radiation free zones using their products, only to remove that press release from their website after one of the doctors denied the news.
These products are sold on Amazon. But once the University of Surrey study came out, Amazon has quickly sought clarifications from the company and has apparently asked them to remove false claims from their store listing. But as of today, the product is still available on Amazon in the US with dubious claims (yes, there is an Amazon legal disclaimer but..).
What you see below is the schematic diagram of a 5G chip (cancer causing) that the COVID19 vaccine conspiracy theorists are claiming to have been inserted in the vaccine.
This diagram is being circulated to support their conspiracy theory that COVID-19 vaccines will be used by governments across the globe to track everyone’s movement.
But there is one problem.
As an engineer at Redhat pointed out that diagram they shared is really a reworked schematic for the Boss Metal Zone, a guitar pedal. (How cool it would be if we all got a guitar pedal implanted in our RNA! But I digress.).
The conspiracy theorists shared the schematic online and it soon went viral as you would expect, claiming that this depicted the diagram for the supposed 5G chip. It features a section labelled “5G frequency” — clearly triggering a “eureka moment” in all the minds of the conspiracy theorists.
People who were already in the anti-vaccine bubble and already buying the 5G frequency radiation theories were drawn to this diagram immediately because of a couple of triggers.
A carefully planted pattern.
Apophenia — It’s human beings’ unique ability to find patterns when none exist at all. We are basically pattern matching animals, mostly out of paranoia. Everything in the evolutionary chain of our species shows how much we let patterns control our lives. Seeing meaningful patterns within randomness is something I personally have done and have experienced people around me doing all the time. Most of these pattern interpretations are innocuous but some aren’t.
From spotting the face of Jesus or Ganesha on a piece of toast or an eggplant to spotting dolphins and camels in cloud formations to hearing about the mystical symbolism behind a feather in one’s backyard to rejoicing about an exciting fortune associated with a palm itch,I have done and seen it all.
This is apophenia. Trying to derive meaning from randomness through non-existent patterns. As opposed to true geometrical patterns, often fractal, that very much exist in nature like seashells, flower petals, desert sand dunes, etc..
Apophenia is a generic term.
There are a few different kinds of apophenia.
The face seeing, animal spotting kind — more of the visual and aural kinds is known as Pareidolia.
Then there is Gambler’s Fallacy — which unfortunately regular gamblers fall prey to, as they see patterns in random numbers and start believing in their winning combination/luck.
Then we have Clustering Illusion, a form of apophenia, where we see patterns in large sequences of random numbers and data or events. Some sort of cognitive bias. An example I can think of from the game of Cricket is the one that’s used often — “The Law of Averages”. A misdirected statistical belief that if an event has happened often, then there comes a time for that event not to happen again. This apophenia is a bit more prevalent in the finance industry as well.
Finally, there is the Confirmation Bias form of apophenia which leads to Conspiracy Theories. Confirmation Bias is a psychological phenomenon when we test a hypothesis with the assumption that it’s true. We keep accumulating data, only data that confirms our assumption(s), and we build an overemphasis-data wall around us that doesn’t let us see or hear anything else.
In the recent wake of the attempted coup at the US Capitol and the attacks inside, and the ongoing conspiracy theory around how the election was stolen even when there is absolutely no proof for any of the claims, the fourth category of apophenia becomes relevant for our current times— confirmation bias leading to conspiracy theories.
And guess what? Technology companies, especially social media platforms (I am including YouTube here) have developed a robust business model around this. They build models based on past user engagement to develop an algorithm which will ensure there is enough click generation as the user scrolls down. Whether it’s an ad for a product that they know the user would be interested in based on a user behavior pattern they have studied or for another news article that has similar data that fits the user’s bias, these companies are only improving in how they can keep the user engaged and to give them a high from their confirmation bias.
Even though they don’t actively encourage you to follow conspiracy theories, it’s their business model which incidentally encourages conspiracies as an emergent property of algorithmic amplification.
Sure, we are literally surrounded by people who believe in fantastical things and mystical stories, that often cause them to engage in irrational, dangerous, and sometimes terrorizing and murderous behavior. Sure, they have to take complete responsibility for their conduct.
But are we ready to hold technology companies accountable for exploiting people’s apophenia through algorithms?
And if we agree that the technology companies have to take some responsibility and accountability, then what about the manufacturers of such fraudulent claims triggering apophenia in their victims? Be it the company selling smartDots or the demagogue peddling a fraud election conspiracy theory, aren’t they the ones who are ultimately profiting the most from these?
After all, their profits depend on repeating these conspiratorial stories and in amplification of the same through algorithms, and further falsification of confirmation of their lies.
Here’s the thing. Even though human beings have a proclivity towards finding patterns in random things, we have to remember that these things don’t happen in void. They don’t happen without someone actively inciting us to look for them, because an average human, probably wouldn’t experience apophenia as often, especially of the last kind.
For example, let’s take the case of SmartDots and Donald Trump. (I am not equating the two). The company Energydots and the politician Donald Trump see an opportunity in the victims’ brains getting misfired, so they actively look for a business/political opportunity to exploit that condition, and they come up with a grand monetizing/demagoguery scheme to make these victims part with their money/anger. To earn their trust, they make really outlandish claims. Then they go about reinforcing those false claims by bringing false validation from others on the outside.
Apophenia is weird. It’s omnipresent.
Our individual ability to try to avoid apophenia aside, as long as there are schemers and manufacturers of lies around us, who continue to exploit our apophenia, and as long as they are not punished, penalized, and held accountable for exploiting us, these conspiracy theories and products with false claims will continue to thrive, and some of these conspiracy theories and products will continue to cause us grave harm and put us in danger.
Can we break that pattern?
