Picture a late morning scene at a watering hole in Etosha National Park in Namibia. The sun is getting close to its apex position in the sky, its fierce rays pierce through the cloudless sky onto the ground. All types of animals from a family of majestic African elephants to a tower of leggy giraffes… Continue reading Unknown Unknowns
Tag: Cognitive biases
I err, therefore I am
When talking about the human mental capabilities, in The Symbolic Species, Terrence Deacon stated that “biologically, we are just another ape. Mentally, we are new phylum of organism.” This wondrous and unfathomably complex organ - the brain - has enabled us to become the most dominant species of the planet. With a unique capacity to… Continue reading I err, therefore I am
Truth Springs from Arguments
Nature is saturated with feedback mechanisms ranging in scale from the molecular to the macroscopic. Feedback is defined as the process of mutual causal interaction: where A affects B and B affects A. This interaction creates a circuit of effects, so any change in A, causes a change in B, which in turn causes a… Continue reading Truth Springs from Arguments
Tail Events
The human brain (like any other organ) has evolved for specific environments and is constrained by its chemistry and historical contingencies. In my last post, I discussed the cognitive blind spots that play a role in the epidemic of over-testing and over-treating in medicine. Human decision making is notoriously ill-equipped to distinguish between low probability… Continue reading Tail Events
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