Topic awaiting preservation: Coincidence? Or part of something, Bigger...

Yesterday I was raking leaves in my lawn, nothing at all unusual except! I noticed a card laying in my stack of leaves. I brushed away the leaves and picked up the card and it was a Joker! What was a joker doing in my leaves?

Hmmm I thought, nothing big.

But later that evening I saw a shirt on my bed, with a joker on it! The shirt had some sort of Jester with the words Joker above and below!

Holy Shit! I thought.

Later my mom explains that she went shopping, saw the shirt, and thought I would like it.

I am still clueless, was this a trick? Was this part of the... Supernatural world? Is there really a dog?

~walks away mumbling more philosophical questions to himself~

[This message has been edited by InSiDeR (edited 11-08-2002).]

Coincidence

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Ive got a question for yah...

Do you believe at all in any supernatural thing? Any other force out there?

There really is a dog, yes. Take a deep breath.

A Coincidence, well yea, but Coincidence can tell you something. Like for instance, I saw for about a period of two months a flock of geese fly over my car every day on the way to work. I thought it was cool and that perhaps there were lots of geese in the area, but then I went here - Geese - and noticed that it corresponded with my desire to futher advance my soul's path and also in my desires to learn more about the healing arts. Anyway, take a look into what the meaning of the Joker is and perhaps you will find out more.

Joker



[This message has been edited by Gilbert Nolander (edited 11-08-2002).]

I believe that there is definately some other extra terrestrial force in the far and distant, oblivious, universe.

Perhaps it just means that Jestah is out to get you...


(how's that for paranoia?)

Perhaps it bodes a future for you in the casino/gambling industry, stand up/television comedy, or an exciting career in mime or village idiot.

Perhaps the Joker represents someone who will soon cross your path and accost you with selzer water.

Maybe God just wants you to know that he thinks you're a buffoon.

Signs can be tricky like that.

Better start practicing your prat-falls.

Ok. Let's look at this another way... suppose the card and the shirt mean something.

What does the image of a joker mean to you?

Why do you call this event supernatural rather than natural?

Why extraterrestrial force rather than terrestrial force?

Because no man could develop the deep and studying thought process of coming up with a plan so genius...

Insider: Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't following me... good advice to keep in mind

Hokay.

Yah, things like dat happen. I can think of a number of examples off da tiptop of me head. Usually the 3rd time is the charm though. If it happens 2 times and you notice, is is likely not to happen again. But if it does... watch out.

You gotta go with coincidence. Follow me for a minute here.

What was it, three weeks to a month ago somebody in the main forum told us his cat died. Just about the same time somebody in either 'site reviews' or 'photoshop' posted a link to their site and some of their art work. The first piece I looked at was a sketch of a guy on a bed pistol in hand/suicide. Well only days before I read and viewed those two.... my neighbour had his cat put down. He then went home and put himself down. On the bed. I miss them both. A heightened state of awareness could make it seem otherwise but it really was a coincidence.

Watch your back InSiDeR, I'm coming.

-Jestah
Cell 277

One time, a few weeks back, I stepped in some dog shit. As I looked at the smooshed pile I noticed a distinct impression of a swoosh.

Maybe this came from my shoe; or maybe, just maybe it was a sign. Nike was the greek goddess of victory. Could she be sending me an ethereal message that fortune is headed my way? Am I going to receive a windfall of cash?

My volleyball team won our league a couple of weeks ago, was it foreshadowing?

Or do I just need to watch where the fuck I walk?



[This message has been edited by krets (edited 11-13-2002).]

Actually krets, that just means you need to stop looking so closely at smooshed shit.

Coincidence.

krets, admit it! You enjoyed swishing through that sh*t.

. . : slicePuzzle

Okay, probability lesson time, just follow the instructions:


Chose a pen that won't mind getting dirty and throw it at the floor

Look at it

What is the probability of the pen being positioned exactly like that?
Very close to zero, right?
It is zero for all practical effects

But still, now you may also have thought: what is the probability of the pen being somewhere on the floor?
Very close to absolute, right?
And once again, for practical effects it is

What this means is that if i throw an infinite amount of pens at the floor, the sum of all those singular, almost zero probabilities will be absolute.

Followed? Good. It's simple, logic and quite acceptable for most people. You may pick up the pen, now.


Now, let's transcribe this to the level of what Insider there reported:

He was startled for seeing something unusual. But how unusual?
Since a pen on the floor looks the same to us wherever we put it, we don't call it unusual seeing it there instead of (thow it again at this point) there.

But in reality, if we increase the number of dimensions of the result space (in this case, if we put things to a level above the fully perceptable) we can't expect to have the same grasp.
In other words, there's no way we can see all of the field of events in the same way we saw the pen on the floor, wherever it was.

So, let's pick a strange event - think of any really strange event - "What is the chance of that?", you will ask.
zero, almost zero

Now, let me ask you simply this: "What is the Number of other strange events you could possibly have considered?"
Join that number (that for itself should be big enough) to all the other events you couldn't have thought about and:
What do you get?

infinite, or very close to it

And what is the probability of an infinite group of events? "Absolute", you will cleverly reply.

Good show! You now comprehend this theory enough to the point that you can point out to our dear friend Insider that if we had a way of reading about all the strange things that can follow a jester card on top of some stack of leaves we really wouldn't be interested in any particular one.

Absolutely, Arthemis.

S^abaal ud T'a johtizuc^ ult'a Fedaro.

It's the intesection of the events that catches our attention. In the total union of events that are possible in the universe, the chance of that particular intesection becomes statistically very likely.

When weird things happen to us, we take notice. When the same weird thing happens to someone else, it's not as spectacular. It's all a matter of perception, and there's really no such thing as "coincidence". In science these days, they call it an "oddmatch".

We should all be familiar with statistics. They are the only way to get pure information out of the world. Unfortunately for us, statistics are a pain in the a**. I can't think of anyone I know who hasn't had to take that course at least twice to get a decent passing grade!

Bodhi - Cell 617

Ok, Arthemis.

Say you sort through two billion piles of leaves across the world,
how many joker cards will you find in all those piles,
probaby one out of a billion piles.


Then what are the chances of finding a joker card in leaves,
then having some one buy you a joker shirt and placing it
on your bed in the same day. That must be one out of 1.5 billion, or higher.

So, it is pretty unlikely. Or something.....
So, it could be a message that Insider's sub-conscious mind is trying to get across to him... Or something.....

I stress the Or something....



[This message has been edited by Gilbert Nolander (edited 11-26-2002).]

So, what are the chances of people wasting way too much time on a thread like this?

At the Asylum...

Very high.

Statistics are evil. There are 3 types of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics. Saying statistics are the only way to get pure information out of the world is pure balogna.

Statistics serve a useful purpose but you have to be very, very careful around them. They can obfuscate, confuse and inveigle. They can be misleading and even completely wrong.

You have been warned.


~ The truth is out there, but lies are in your head - T. Pratchett ~

have no clue about the Joker thing, but as for the "is there really a dog?" Yep, and they are living at my house

Later,
C:\


~Binary is best~

[This message has been edited by CPrompt (edited 11-26-2002).]

I believe we are now getting into the weak and strong anthropic principles.

The weak anthropic principle says, "Gee-whiz, it was jolly nice of the universe to evolve in such a way that Insider could be created and have these strange, meaningful occurrences."
The strong anthropic principle says, "The whole point of the universe was to evolve to a point where a being such as Insider could be created and all signs are meant for him to the sole exclusion of all else."

Of course, the strong anthropic principle is one which everyone secretly believes is true.

We may all want to believe that the strong anthropic principle is true for us, but I have some bad news: since it just so happens to be true for me, the rest of you are out of luck.

Actually, I prefer to believe that you're all figments of my imagination.

I remember having a stuffed dinosaur toy when I was young, and his name was Figment. Was there a cartoon dinosaur (dragon?) from somewhere named Figment?

Anyway... I'll be down in the basement playing with my new electrodes if anyone needs me...

i refuse to state any further opinions on this simply because i don't want to.

in other words: "eat me, i taste awful"