Sunday Musings: Denial of Reality — the Unlikely Case of the $10,000 Penny
Happy Valentine's Day!
If you're a regular follower of these pages, you might remember that I often poke around in the subject of what IS and what is NOT "reality."
Human beings are pretty strange creatures sometimes, because some of us might choose to deny that existence actually exists... as it exists, choosing instead to substitute the realities we've dreamed up inside our heads for the external version of (mostly) consensus reality.
This is MY 1882 penny and it's NOT worth $10K!
The $10,000 Penny
The other day, I found myself looking at collectibles online (because it's one of my trades), and came across a sales listing in which someone was offering an 1882 US Indian Head Penny for $10,000. It was just a regular old penny, which in most cases can be had from dozens of online sellers for somewhere between $5 and $40, depending on condition.
Except this person evidently believed that their penny was "old and rare," so they were asking $10,000, without offering any kind of reason (A minting error? Mis-struck?) why they were asking $10,000 for it.
I put my best detective skills to work to figure out why it might be $10,000... but came up with nothing.
Ivy and snow — outside our front door, a short while ago
Cognitive Blindness
So I ended up attributing it to an example of a certain kind of "Cognitive Blindness" I periodically see in people who will insist that "What Uncle Jack told me" is a truth with greater veracity and validity than the opinions of 15 separate experts in whatever field they happen to be dealing with.
Of course, it's not the first time I have come across something like this. As a dealer in rare old postage stamps and paper collectibles on eBay and elsewhere, I have seen all sorts of things over the past 20+ years.
Typically, they are the result of someone having only the most fleeting notion that some old thing is "rare and valuable" and then doing absolutely NO research to back up their belief.
It makes me wonder whether they simply are blind to reality... or do they not want it to be true that Aunt Bertha's "priceless" stamp collection in fact is worth about $10... on a good day?
Occasional Exceptions
To be fair (Letterkenny reference), there are incidences in which "reality" can become subjective, and one person's "reality" is no longer the consensus reality... yet that person is right.
In the 1997 movie "Contact" the protagonist Ellie Arroway has an "experience" that nobody else shares in... and whereas her experience was 100% real and authentic, she is faced with the uphill challenge of persuading the world that her perception is actually real in spite of nobody else actually having had that same experience. Of course, that's a fictional case.
In the "real world" the extremely unlikely does happen, from time to time. I know this, as a dealer in rare old postage stamps for collectors... as part of which I have now handled TWO items previously recognized as "believed to exist, but no known examples documented." Which — in a collector market — is a really big deal. Just watch a few episodes of Pawn Stars if you don't believe me!
Anyway, each time I offered one for sale, several people contacted me to express that what I was offering wasn't possible in spite of my physically having possession and expert opinions.
Scam... or Ignorance?
But that's a far cry from believing that something relatively common is "a great rarity" and worth $10,000.
It begs the question whether the listing was created by someone out of pure ignorance, OR it was the work of someone who was knowingly trying to fleece someone else who is ignorant. But still... is anyone ignorant enough to spend $10,000 without getting an expert opinion, first?
Earlier this afternoon, someone messaged me on Facebook about "Government Grants" for small businesses due to Covid... and all I had to do was "send $3,000 to cover taxes and fees" in order to get a $400,000 grant. Scam-O-Rama, anyone?
Anyway... just some Sunday musings. Be careful out there, it's a jungle!
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your Valentine's Day!
How about YOU? Ever deal with people or situations that seemed to disregard reality? Have you ever BEEN the one who had a piece of genuine reality that fell outside the cracks? How did you deal with it? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20210214 21:20 PST
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In the 1997 movie "Contact" the protagonist Ellie Arroway has an "experience" that nobody else shares in... and whereas her experience was 100% real and authentic, she is faced with the uphill challenge of persuading the world that her perception is actually real in spite of nobody else actually having had that same experience. Of course, that's a fictional case.
Because I'm feeling particular pedantic today (the result of being deep in philosophical matters), I call this example out.
It's only due to the nature of the film itself (the audience is observing her subjective experience, thus, then making it an objective one - which is impossible in reality .
Unless is verifiable , subjective truths can only ever be opinion or personal perspective. (ergo, making the premise of the film, moot).
Pedantic rant over! lol
Thank you! I'm glad I count on you to challenge my notions of reality and un-reality!
I don't know of you remember a later scene in the movie where someone defends that they had to dismiss Ellie's testimony because her on-board recorder only came back with static. And the other person in the room remarks "Yes, but it recorded 23 HOURS of static..." impossible for an event to took a few seconds to the visible eye.
The variable or "x-factor" in the idea of something being "verifiable" is inevitably TIME. Meaning, for example, that microwaves existed before we could detect and measure them. Simply because something is not visible, measurable or understandable isn't conclusive evidence that it doesn't exist, merely that we don't know... yet.
I'm glad I count on you to challenge my notions of reality and un-reality!
Yessir! Major reality check, at your service! lol
(you're honored, really - I've given up on most...)
(I don't know the film.... I might have seen it way back, I dunno)
Simply because something is not visible, measurable or understandable isn't conclusive evidence that it doesn't exist, merely that we don't know... yet.
....Indeed, but as you say , time is the only parameter that we have, in which to frame what reality is.
(Anything else is hypothesis and concept).
What beautiful shots! I don't think I caught it anywhere what camera do you use?
Thank you!
It's a hopelessly outdated Fuji Finepix HS20 EXR which is pretty much a dinosaur by current camera standards... but it does the job pretty well, and even though it's knocking on 10 years old I've become so familiar with its quirks and shortcomings that I understand how to "lie" to it to make good shots even in situations where it's not a suitable camera.
I'm sorry I missed this. I'm so used to you posting via Natural Medicine I forgot to look for you under the #naturalmedicine tag! Sorry.
Haha, the latest one making me laugh is via Instagram - some facecream which has younger woman say 'I'm 72 but look 39' - it's so goddamn awful I can't believe people fall for this stuff!
Great post, as usual!