But, I continued, sometimes we go overboard. Sometimes, our naturally selected pattern detectors are so primed, so ready to announce that a signal has been found, that they see patterns and envision correlations that are not there. Sometimes we assign meaning to the meaningless. From basic math we know that on average, one out of every four times you’ll correctly guess a card’s suit; one out of every thirteen times, you’ll guess its rank. But that pattern reveals nothing about telepathic ability. Once in a blue moon—well, less often than that—you’ll randomly walk the field and find your
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