Signal Noise Illusions June 6, 2006
Posted by Phineas in : Irrelevant , trackbackI confess I do not have spam 100% eradicated from my life. I quarantine it, but I still sit there and scan for false positives. I will probably eventually learn that the 1% of false positives (or less) aren’t worth the time spent hunting for them, and just start purging them ruthlessly.
But because I sit there and scan them, that means I have to devlop my own mental filters and algorithms to distinguish spam from something real. Spammers use these ingenious and often humorous random email/name/text generator tools to make each email seem unique, so I have to ask myself, “Gee, do I know a Dexter McGillicutty?” (I wish I knew a Dexter McGillicutty). Since random names will occasionally look familiar, I immediately get suspicious. Every now and then they pick a real name, or half a real name, or even a word I was just thinking, and it’s eerie. It’s hard not to believe that the occasional hits aren’t somehow special, or less random than everything else.
I rationally know this to be an illusion, and a product of the fact that I am seeking something recognizable, so when I find something recognizable, it’s like I have found what I was seeking, therefore it stands out, contributing to the feeling of relevance. But knowing this and feeling it are two different things. It’s an interesting signal-noise phenomenon, but it does piss me off that my brain is being jerked around like that.
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