Humanoid Figure On Mars/Pareidolia

Lightkeeper · #1 (**permalink**) 26th January 2008, 12:41 AM

Quote:

NASA: Mars 'Humanoid Figure' Is Tiny Wind-Blown Rock
Friday, January 25, 2008

A detail from a NASA image of a Martian crater shows ... well, something.
A detail from a NASA image of a Martian crater shows ... well, something.
A strange alien figure on Mars? Yeah, right, says NASA.

As reported Wednesday, bloggers and British newspapers have been abuzz this week over a blurry image taken by the Mars rover Spirit in November that seems to show a humanoid figure ambling down a shallow slope.

"It's a two-inch piece of rock eroded by the wind," explained NASA spokesman Dwayne Brown.

Various jokers had suggested that the figure might be Bigfoot, a naked woman, a Tusken Raider from "Star Wars" or Usama bin Laden.

One Danish group noted that the figure looked like the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen harbor, and postulated that ancient Martians had colonized Scandinavia.

Meh, said Brown.

"No one on the Mars Rover team is puzzled or surprised by the rock," he said. "I can guarantee you that if [the alien theory] had any validity, we would would have a major press conference."

An understanding of how the photo — actually a series of composite images — was taken should dispel any belief that Sasquatch lives on the Red Planet.

The Mars Rover took three days to make the huge panoramic image, slowly moving from one side to the other as it snapped images.

At each position, various filters were snapped into place over the camera lens, meaning that each static color shot actually takes several minutes to compose.

Throughout all that, the figure doesn't move, meaning it's certainly inanimate.

FOXNews.com - NASA: Mars 'Humanoid Figure' Is Tiny Wind-Blown Rock - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News
Pareidolia(payr.eye.DOH.lee.uh) n. The erroneous or fanciful perception of a pattern or meaning in something that is actually ambiguous or random.
—pareidolic adj. Word Spy - pareidolia

The Rorschach test uses pareidolia to attempt to gain insight into a person's mental state.

Do we see what we know and possibly miss something new?

Jayhawker Soule · #2 (**permalink**) 26th January 2008, 12:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lightkeeper

Do we see what we know and possibly miss something new?

No, we see what we believe. We are an effectively delusional pattern-matching species.

evangelicalhumanist · #3 (**permalink**) 26th January 2008, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jayhawker Soule

No, we see what we believe. We are an effectively delusional pattern-matching species.

While that is undoubtedly true, I'm saddened that you leave out so much of the rest of what we are also.

The ability (no, make that the compulsion) to try and find patterns in everything we sense is unquestionably part of how human intelligence works, and there is reams of material about how this ability might have evolved.

But it's not all we do! We remember things, we learn things, and we are capable of at least some measure of rationality. And our ability to reason allows us to take that "pattern" that we've recently thought "wow, that's a Martian," and move to the next phase -- reasoning it out that it is not, and for this, this and that reasons.

Please, give the species at least a little credit! I'm sure we're worth something, in the grand scheme of things.

Jayhawker Soule · #4 (**permalink**) 26th January 2008, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evangelicalhumanist

While that is undoubtedly true, I'm saddened that you leave out so much of the rest of what we are also.

Don't be sad. I was simply responding to a point, not writing a tome. Shabbat shalom.

Lightkeeper · #5 (**permalink**) 27th January 2008, 12:41 AM

How many times do we meet someone and they will say, "you remind me of someone I know." We see what we believe, but we also have tendency to try to interpret the unknown by what we already know.

**angeleyes** · #6 (**permalink**) 27th January 2008, 07:50 AM

What's even more amazing to me is that every "thing" is just energy, vibrating at different levels. That beats Big Foot anyday, here OR on Mars.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode