ideasthesia

Sign in Subscribe

human-meaning

Oracles and Randomization: From Delphi to Decision Theory

Oracles and Randomization: From Delphi to Decision Theory

The Oracle at Delphi and a randomized controlled trial have more in common than you'd think. Both use structured uncertainty to sidestep the biases of individual judgment. From sortition in Athens to A/B tests in Silicon Valley, we've always outsourced hard choices to chance.

Astrology: The Persistence of an Unfalsifiable System

Astrology: The Persistence of an Unfalsifiable System

Controlled studies have repeatedly failed to validate astrological predictions. Yet astrology is more popular than ever. The real question is why it persists — and what that reveals about how minds seek meaning.

Tarot: How 78 Cards Became a Mirror

Tarot: How 78 Cards Became a Mirror

Tarot was invented for trick-taking games, not prophecy. Its reinvention as a mirror of the psyche happened in stages — through occultists, Jungians, and New Age therapists — each era projecting its own theory of the mind onto the same 78 cards.

The I Ching: 3000 Years of Structured Randomness

The I Ching: 3000 Years of Structured Randomness

Jung called it synchronicity. Mathematicians call it a binary system. The I Ching is 3,000 years of divination that also happens to be mathematically elegant combinatorics.

Why Divination Works (Psychologically)

Why Divination Works (Psychologically)

Tarot cards and I Ching hexagrams don't predict futures — they externalize inner conflict, relieve decision fatigue, and create narrative scaffolding for choices already forming. Divination works because of psychology, not magic.

The Science of Divination

The Science of Divination

Divination sounds like superstition, but it's doing something cognitively real. From cracking oracle bones to shuffling tarot cards, the practice of structured randomness has a surprisingly coherent function.

Synthesis: What Anomalies Teach Us

Synthesis: What Anomalies Teach Us

Cases where perception, memory, or sense of self break down reveal what those systems are actually doing when they work. Anomalous experiences are cognitive science's natural experiments — unexpected probes of the machinery underneath.