Navigating a Whackadoodle World: Episode 42, or Are you aware of how people try to influence you?
A Whackadoodle interlude with my student in which I question her desire to prove she has a 'strong' mind.
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“I saw this cool post on Facebook,” she informed me between homework assignments. “It was an image to show how strong your mind works. If you can read the message out loud, you have a ‘strong’ mind.”
“Oh, this is an image I have to see,” I told her.
“I thought you might say that,” she smile happily, while pulling out her iPad, “So here it is.”
“I must have a ‘strong’ mind because I can read this easily,” I said after looking at it for a few minutes. I read it out loud to prove my point.
This message serves to prove how our minds can do amazing things! Impressive things! In the beginning it was hard, but now, on this line your mind is reading automatically without even thinking about it, Be PROUD! Only certain people can read this. Please forward if you can read this.
I looked up to watch her reaction. She did not seem impressed. “I suspect that you also have a ‘strong’ mind, and that you could also read it out loud easily after a few minutes.” I added.
“Why do you suspect that?” she asked uncertainly.
“Because all human brains work that way, not just the special ‘strong’ ones. Whoever wrote this post is just trying to engage your ego, and get you to forward their message because you have a rare ‘strong’ mind. That ‘strong’ mind is not so rare. It’s how human minds actually work.”
“What do you mean?”
“Our brains automatically look for connections to make sense of the world around us. When presented with nonsense words, our brains look to find sense within those words. It doesn’t take long for our minds to adapt to the new nonsense, so we can read those nonsense words. It’s not rare, it’s normal. If you can’t do it, you should check with your doctor.”
“So they’re just trying to persuade me to forward their post by stroking my ego?”
“Now you’re thinking with a ‘strong’ mind.”
It is called code. Sone letters re substitute for numbers. Once you break the code, reading it becomes easy. We did this as kids playing cops and robbers. Write something that made sense but only every 3rd letter contained the true message. Tougher than writing a poem. I wonder if AI could break the code. Does that mean AI has a strong mind?