A conspiracy theory without a conspiracy is the most dangerous kind - Korea JoongAng Daily
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Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" reveals the most chilling truth about conspiracy theories: the human mind is so wired for pattern-recognition that it can manufacture a sinister plot out of pure noise.
ApopheniaPattern RecognitionEpistemology of ConspiracySemiotics
Theory Briefing
- Eco's 1988 novel shows three editors inventing a grand conspiracy as a game — only for believers to treat it as terrifying reality.
- Apophenia, the tendency to find meaningful patterns in random data, is the engine that makes leaderless conspiracies self-sustaining and unfalsifiable.
- A conspiracy theory without an actual conspiracy is most dangerous because there is no hidden truth to debunk, only an endless loop of interpretation.