Bias

This note is about bias that results from subjectivity, for example the many human biases, including the bias for finding narrative, meaning, and order where they do not exist.

Herzen wrote in an article entitled “Apropos of a Drama”:

"There is something about chance that is intolerably repellent to a free spirit…. He wants the misfortunes that overtake him to be predestined—that is, to exist in connection with a universal world order; he wants to accept disasters as persecutions and punishments: this allows him to console himself through submission or rebellion."

Herzen: the future is a variation improvised on the theme of the past.

Humans, as all living beings (cf. Biosemiotics) have inherent biases.

For example, apophenia, or patternicity, is a term/condition that refers to a tendency in humans where they see patterns where patterns do not exist.