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Coincidences

Simon said:
Just had mermaids come up three times in a ten minute span! First I saw a painting by Jennie Harbour, then I came across a song called ‘Mermaid‘ by Brenda Wootton (Her voice was so beautiful.), then a photo by Michael Dweck, whose Wikipedia page said his second book was called ‘Mermaids.’
I don’t think I’d heard of any of these people before!
Just changed my avatar to the Jennie Harbour painting!
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Oooh! Oooh! More mermaids!
 

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My eldest is on holiday in California. I texted him to look out for earth tremors, as during our one visit to San Francisco years ago we were quite disappointed not to experience one. He replied that he hadn't mentioned the possibility of quakes to his fiancee, as she gets stressed about travelling anyway.

Then I opened up FB today to see that a friend in California had posted about a mag 4 quake in northern Cali. Luckily son is still in LA so he's unlikely to have noticed that one. I'm hoping I haven't hexed their trip!
 
Had another coincidence a few days ago. I was talking to a colleague about music, and I told him that I was a big fan of Joni Mitchel. He said his favourite album of hers was ‘Blue’ and I said it was the ultimate breakup album!
A few hours later, a Twitter/ X friend was answering the question ‘What’s the ultimate breakup album?’ Her reply? ‘Blue’!
 
On Saturday, I watched the 2003 maritime epic, Master & Commander and was not too surprised to find in it a sequence alluding to the symbolism of the albatross in The Ancient Marriner. The following night, I put on the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - the old Basil Rathbone version. What turns up as a menacing message to those about to die? The image of the disgraced marriner, with the seabird around his neck!

I think it must be a communication from Rynner! :nods:
 
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In the office at lunchtime one of the researchers was talking about last year's field trip to the catacombs in Exeter. I listened for a while then said, "They don't sound as good as the catacombs in Palermo," at which point BOTH the students in the room burst out with, "I've been there!" It made me smile!
 
Half-watching Blondie at the BBC just now while looking at Facebook, tapping a foot along to I Am Always Touched By Your Presence Dear; reached the bit where Debbie repeats Dear! Dear! Dear! Dear! Dear! when a video of a deer crashing through the window of a Tennessee restaurant and charging around the place in a panic popped up on my feed. :omg:
 
Here's a good one.

I read a book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance back in the mid-'90's. It made a huge impression on me and I went back to read the introduction and dust jackets.

The author told the story of having a convulsion on the streets of Chicago and everyone just walked by without helping.

When I was a young man a few people had already walked by him before I did. I always felt guilty about it. After reading the book I wouldn't have just walked by.

It's a small world really.
 
mummyknave said:
Here's a good one.

I read a book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance back in the mid-'90's. It made a huge impression on me and I went back to read the introduction and dust jackets.

The author told the story of having a convulsion on the streets of Chicago and everyone just walked by without helping.

When I was a young man a few people had already walked by him before I did. I always felt guilty about it. After reading the book I wouldn't have just walked by.

It's a small world really.
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Please clarify. You were actually there when the author, Robert Pirsig, was having a convulsion?
 
I don't ring my youngest a lot, and never at the same day or time.
However each time I ring her her husband's phone will ring and she'll say " Oh, it's his Mother" lol
 
Mythopoeika said:
Please clarify. You were actually there when the author, Robert Pirsig, was having a convulsion?
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I don't know for certain, of course. But I was in Chicago at about that time and did see a man in the street. He didn't appear to be a bum. The dust jacket didn't provide a great deal of detail and I didn't remember a lot of detail anyway. I had felt guilty about it for years especially after I learned that it was a common occurrence for crowds to ignore people in danger or distress if the first person didn't help. I wasn't first on the scene but wasn't far back. It was probably he and I was at least in some part responsible for him not getting help for, I believe he said, nearly half an hour.

I can take at least some small solace in him having lived to a ripe old age. Maybe if he had gotten help sooner he'd have written more books.

There are lots of coincidences in life but we don't often find out about them on a dust jacket. I almost never read introductions, dust jackets, or anything other than the first chapter to the last and sometimes even read it backward.

I believe most lives are intermingled like this but we just rarely find out about it. Coincidences can be stupendous and occur on a continuing basis but we can't see them.
 
mummyknave said:
There are lots of coincidences in life but we don't often find out about them on a dust jacket. I almost never read introductions, dust jackets, or anything other than the first chapter to the last and sometimes even read it backward.

I believe most lives are intermingled like this but we just rarely find out about it. Coincidences can be stupendous and occur on a continuing basis but we can't see them.
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I'm sure it's been said upthread, possibly by me, but a coincidence is defined by how remarkable we think it is that 2 or more events occurred and appear, in our minds, to be linked.

If we are aware of 10 events, there are 362,880 potential "pairs". We notice the 1 "coincidence" but we do not notice the 362,879 that are, to us, unremarkable. Someone else, with a different life experience, or different priorities, might notice a different "coincidence".

Of course, in real life, we are all aware of far more than 10 events, every day. I've lived over 22,000 days, so it would be surprising if I had never experienced a remarkable coincidence.

It's like the "coincidence" that the planet we live on has exactly the right temperature range, minerals, water, comfortable gravity, etc. for us to be able to live on it. Apart from the fact that we could live on it if any of the key variables was very slightly different, the main point is that if Earth was not suitable for life, we wouldn't be here on Earth to notice how remarkable it was. There is no one on all those barren planets bemoaning their bad luck that their planet is not suitable for life.

Coincidences are engaging and fun, but they exist only in the eye of the beholder.
 
Two today!

Browsing FaceBook before work, somebody had post a picture of an Austin Maxi, so I commented that they were the car of my childhood. (My Dad had at least three during the 1970s). Then cycling home tonight, my eye was caught by the car parked on the other side of the road - a Maxi.

In the downstairs lab, there is only a small drying cabinet which normally suffices, but somebody had been clearing out an experiment and so I was having to re-jig the space. Looking at the cabinet contents, I noticed a plastic box containing some sterilised scissors that belonged to B, and wondered to myself if she would ever move the damn thing. About an hour later B came round the corner and asked whether I knew anything about some scissors she had left out to sterilise a while ago; I went straight to the cabinet and retrieved the box for her. She was very grateful as she thought she'd lost them. I was just happy to free up a bit more drying room.
 
Mikefule said:
It's like the "coincidence" that the planet we live on has exactly the right temperature range, minerals, water, comfortable gravity, etc. for us to be able to live on it. Apart from the fact that we could live on it if any of the key variables was very slightly different, the main point is that if Earth was not suitable for life, we wouldn't be here on Earth to notice how remarkable it was.
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I know this was not the point of your post, but this knowledge of the immenseness of the universe and this being the one planet that has animals and plants inhabiting it often strikes me with awe (when I really think about it).
 
Mikefule said:
I'm sure it's been said upthread, possibly by me, but a coincidence is defined by how remarkable we think it is that 2 or more events occurred and appear, in our minds, to be linked.

If we are aware of 10 events, there are 362,880 potential "pairs". We notice the 1 "coincidence" but we do not notice the 362,879 that are, to us, unremarkable. Someone else, with a different life experience, or different priorities, might notice a different "coincidence".

Of course, in real life, we are all aware of far more than 10 events, every day. I've lived over 22,000 days, so it would be surprising if I had never experienced a remarkable coincidence.

It's like the "coincidence" that the planet we live on has exactly the right temperature range, minerals, water, comfortable gravity, etc. for us to be able to live on it. Apart from the fact that we could live on it if any of the key variables was very slightly different, the main point is that if Earth was not suitable for life, we wouldn't be here on Earth to notice how remarkable it was. There is no one on all those barren planets bemoaning their bad luck that their planet is not suitable for life.

Coincidences are engaging and fun, but they exist only in the eye of the beholder.
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We know all that.
 
escargot said:
We know all that.
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I'm sorry if I have irritated you.

Many of us here know that stuff, but not all. Indeed, it still takes me a bit of mental gymnastics for me to get my head clear about the "Aren't we lucky that everything about Earth is just right for life?" It's similar to, "If your mum had married someone else, what would you be like?" Would you be a different person, or would you not be you? The answer is "obvious" in one sense, but doesn't feel right in another sense.

In a wider Fortean context, I personally feel that the general point about coincidences being defined by the observer needs repeating from time to time. Identifying supposed "coincidences" and building a narrative around them is what feeds conspiracy theories, fears about vaccines, superstitions, and many other things of interest to Forteans.
 
Mikefule said:
I'm sorry if I have irritated you.

Many of us here know that stuff, but not all. Indeed, it still takes me a bit of mental gymnastics for me to get my head clear about the "Aren't we lucky that everything about Earth is just right for life?" It's similar to, "If your mum had married someone else, what would you be like?" Would you be a different person, or would you not be you? The answer is "obvious" in one sense, but doesn't feel right in another sense.

In a wider Fortean context, I personally feel that the general point about coincidences being defined by the observer needs repeating from time to time. Identifying supposed "coincidences" and building a narrative around them is what feeds conspiracy theories, fears about vaccines, superstitions, and many other things of interest to Forteans.
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Not so, when you think about the fact that almost everything around us can/could, attack us in one way or another!
 
Mikefule said:
I'm sorry if I have irritated you.

Many of us here know that stuff, but not all. Indeed, it still takes me a bit of mental gymnastics for me to get my head clear about the "Aren't we lucky that everything about Earth is just right for life?" It's similar to, "If your mum had married someone else, what would you be like?" Would you be a different person, or would you not be you? The answer is "obvious" in one sense, but doesn't feel right in another sense.

In a wider Fortean context, I personally feel that the general point about coincidences being defined by the observer needs repeating from time to time. Identifying supposed "coincidences" and building a narrative around them is what feeds conspiracy theories, fears about vaccines, superstitions, and many other things of interest to Forteans.
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No, I'm not irritated. But we know all that. People are entertained by the fact that coincidences are at the same time bound to happen and also striking when they do occur; simultaneously both mundane and jarring. This is normal.

You're the one having trouble with this concept.
 
Sid said:
Not so, when you think about the fact that almost everything around us can/could, attack us in one way or another!
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Yes, but anything that could attack us (in the literal rather than figurative sense of "attack") is alive. I said right for life, not specifically for human life.
 
Mikefule said:
Yes, but anything that could attack us (in the literal rather than figurative sense of "attack") is alive. I said right for life, not specifically for human life.
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I see. However you did give examples of [ "If your mum had married someone else, what would you be like?" Would you be a different person, or would you not be you?] which made me think you were talking about human lives.
And in fact, when you think about it, all life gets attacked - one way or another, even the Earth attacks itself when quakes and the like take place, that could also be termed as an attack to change 'the life upon it.'
 
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Mikefule said:
I'm sure it's been said upthread, possibly by me, but a coincidence is defined by how remarkable we think it is that 2 or more events occurred and appear, in our minds, to be linked.

If we are aware of 10 events, there are 362,880 potential "pairs". We notice the 1 "coincidence" but we do not notice the 362,879 that are, to us, unremarkable. Someone else, with a different life experience, or different priorities, might notice a different "coincidence".

Of course, in real life, we are all aware of far more than 10 events, every day. I've lived over 22,000 days, so it would be surprising if I had never experienced a remarkable coincidence.

...Coincidences are engaging and fun, but they exist only in the eye of the beholder.
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Um, this doesn't really affect your argument - that we all experience many events and so there are lots of opportunities for possible coincidences, and we notice the remarkable coincidences while ignoring the much more common non-coincidences. I agree with that.
But, as a paid up statto, can I point out that your sums are wrong? The number of pairs of ten events is 10 choose 2 as combinations are often called nowadays. That's 45 not 362,880. It's 9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1, not 9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1.

oxo
 
oxo66 said:
Um, this doesn't really affect your argument - that we all experience many events and so there are lots of opportunities for possible coincidences, and we notice the remarkable coincidences while ignoring the much more common non-coincidences. I agree with that.
But, as a paid up statto, can I point out that your sums are wrong? The number of pairs of ten events is 10 choose 2 as combinations are often called nowadays. That's 45 not 362,880. It's 9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1, not 9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1.

oxo
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You are absolutely right. I wrote it in a hurry, and I habitually think in terms of dice problems (for games design) where it is usually multiplication. I should have been alerted to my mistake by the scale of the answer I calculated. I hang my head in shame. However, as you say, it doesn't affect the argument, just changes the numbers. Genuinely, thanks for pointing it out.
 
Mikefule said:
You are absolutely right. I wrote it in a hurry, and I habitually think in terms of dice problems (for games design) where it is usually multiplication. I should have been alerted to my mistake by the scale of the answer I calculated. I hang my head in shame. However, as you say, it doesn't affect the argument, just changes the numbers. Genuinely, thanks for pointing it out.
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Put it down to just being an uncalculated coincidence I reckon.
 
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