PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

I often don't know how to weigh coincidences.

What's your principle of evaluation trying to make an idea about something that might be pure casualty or something else ?

thats funny... I was just thinking about posting a thread on this.


weird hey....












hahahah..... just kidding......... well ithought it was funny....

What a coincidence.

Were you thinking too to talk generic about, or are there specific circumstances you want discuss?

Speak freely.

I have experienced strange coincidences but there is an explanation for this. It's called "selective memory". Things happen all the time and usually they are ordinary and not worth remembering. When something unusual happens which is a coincidence, then we remember it as a special event. That memory sticks out in our heads among the millions of non-events which quickly are forgotten. Really a coincidence is part of randomness.

thats one of the best and sensible explanations of coincidence i have read.

Neutron wrote:thats one of the best and sensible explanations of coincidence i have read.

+1

there's more going on in the universe than we know. period.

garyb wrote:there's more going on in the universe than we know. period.

how do you know?



because if you know it's not true and if you don't know you can't say it.

And since our heads are universal matter which we don't yet fully understand, it stands to reason that there's more going on in them than we can currently even imagine to comprehend.

edit - Alfonso beat me to a reply.

Shroomz~> wrote:
edit - Alfonso beat me to a reply.

A coincidence?

alfonso wrote:A coincidence?

Do you care?

I was just about to say that.

Shroomz~> wrote:

alfonso wrote:A coincidence?

Do you care?

What about?

If it was a coincidence or not.

Shroomz~> wrote:If it was a coincidence or not.

not about that.

Sorry, I'm going quite mad with this thread

What about talking about the the Olimpic Games?

alfonso wrote:

garyb wrote:there's more going on in the universe than we know. period.

how do you know?



because if you know it's not true and if you don't know you can't say it.

because i know there are things i don't know. because my grandfather who invented many of the products you are in contact with everyday didn't know some things.

it's possible to know that you don't know. who knows the whole future?

It was a thuseday. I was doing a bachelors degree in computer science. First year into the study, I didnt like it. I was already working, helped my brother setup his webdesign company.

-- another story comes to mind:
while I was going to school, the last half year I didnt go to much classes. I always went to this one music store. we smoked the pot and played the gear

The funny thing is, I went to this other town to demo pulsar2. after ordering it, online in msn chat, some other friend tells me about this music store. (the one I just wrote about). I went there and saw the Scope sign hanging, told the guy I just ordered one in another town.
Turns out the stores where from the same owner..... so they send the cards to the local store The guy in the store is a friend still

So... it was a thuseday, I decided (after many hours in the music store I didnt like the study and would stop with it. Also, this was in the beginning of my "spiritual" awakening periode. I was very much interested in Yoga. Was also following a weekly yoga class, and I really wanted to continue and grow in that area.

So that same night, my yoga teacher tells me he is starting a yoga teachers course. Natrually I did the 2 year course, it was a great experience.


These are two of the "coincidences" which have changed my life

well, it's got two types i think. One is coincidence, as in just the conceptual linking, like "coincidentally something similar happened to my brother in law", and then there is coincidence as in the exact same thing happening, like "it was a coincidence that we both like the same brand of beer".

The first one, the conceptual linking seems to be the majority of what we colloquially call coincidences. Which is a very natural thing from what I... eh... "COINCIDENTALY" studied in cognitive science. (somewhat like what braincell pointed out) It's relates to heirarchical organization of concepts, and also thinking in metaphores. Maybe even relating to dejavus and that sort of stuff. If we search for something similar, and find one that relates to the event at hand, then it's labeled a coincidence. I would think "just by chance" would be the more accurate term because the coincidence is only a similarity, and not really exact.

In my opinion, the second one, the exact one, would be the more accurate usage of coincidence. The coincidence of something exactly the same. A person being hit by lightening 3 times is a mega coincidence. Your uncle also being hit by a lightening is even more of a coincidence. But would your aunt being hit by a car also be a coincidence? I guess it depends on the context of the conversation.

But it does point out an interesting aspect of our mind.. it thinks in similes and metaphores. Creates connections between similarly structured concepts. The similarity can be very close, like CARS to CARS, or far, spanning accross distant conceptual branches, like CARS to toilet seats (via seats). Seems to me the distant ones that have many different waypoints constitute what some might call... witty.. or in many cases, what a good joke is all about.

Coincidentally, there is a popular drinking game in Japan where you create a rhythm with words "ma-gi-cal ba-na-na", and with out breaking the rhythm, you have to keep coming up with things that relate in some way to what the person before you said. Starting with a banana.... coincidentally, we just had a word association thread here too. hehe. Ain't life full of coincidences..

I guess this linking allows us to share many different types of ideas relating to a single starting point, just like I did here, through the use of the "coincidence" concept.

[quote="kensuguro"] Starting with a banana.... coincidentally, we just had a word association thread here too. quote]

hmmm, that's no coincidence, Ken...