I read a serious article in a magazine about five years ago which discussed the likelihood that events in the world will become increasingly bizarre. Apparently, this will happen in accordance with a law but not the second law of thermodynamics as far as I remember. It was concerned with human events in everyday life. The magazine could have been the Futurist or Skeptical Inquirer but I can’t find anything in their archives or in an internet search The subject is so intriguing to me that I’d like to enquire here as well. Does anyone know anything about a “law of increasing bizarreness in the world”? If I remember correctly according to the theory world events would start to seem “fictional”. For example, the Olsen twins might become linked to Osama Bin Laden in some way or world leaders would start to have similarities in appearance Things like that. Thank you for your help.
I wonder if this simply arises from the laws of probability and information exchange. There are a lot more people wandering around these days than there were even a hundred years ago, which must increase the probability of some coincidences.
If just one out of three people today is a freaking wierdo, their numbers exceed the entire world population of the year 1900.
Furthermore, news, footage, and communication from virtually all of the populated world is now a possibility.
In other words, you have more silly people doing silly things, and more observers to note said silly things.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any references for you.
Here is a reference from an authority…if it’s all true, the world is truly bizarre!
Who’s going to be the first to quote Douglas Adams here? 
Sounds a bit like Art Bell’s Quickening idea.
Murphy’s Law (in O’Toole’s formulation): “The universe tends towards a state of maximum perversity.”
I had a quick look at the “Quickening” site. Here is the paradox. There is less violent crime than there was 20 years ago, but people fear it more. This includes violence in schools. Yes, there are new viruses, but some of the old ones that used to kill massive numbers of people are either gone (smallpox), going (polio), or anyway are killing far fewer (DPT and measles). What has quickened in the speed of communication.
Good points, Hari. I did quote it somewhat tongue-in-cheek since Art’s whole concept of “The Quickening” seems to be based more on his gut feeling than on any scientific evidence.
The magazine in question is almost certainly the Fortean Times, which annually compiles a ‘weirdness’ index based on the number of reports of strange phenomena. By comparing each year to the one before, they determine whether the world is getting more weird or less weird year on year. They have a nice website which you’re all clever enough to find for yourselves.
Yes! That’s what it was about, I’m sure. Thanks very much. I’m also sure the article wasn’t from the Fortean Times. This is so frustrating because I want to know more. My mega memory receptors must be down.
Is this what you were thinking of? The Principle of Mediocrity"
Could be Terrence McKenna’s [urlhttp://www.levity.com/eschaton/novelty.html]Novelty Theory.
Novelty Theory. Sorry 'bout that. The third time I don’t preview…
The principle of mediocrity and the Novelty theory are very interesting but I’m don’t think they are really concerned with the bizarre as such. The Novelty theory seems to relate more to predicting time periods in the future when a lot of technological changes and innovations will take place. Nanotechnology may seem bizarre now, for instance, but it may be mundane in fifty years’ time. An Olsen twins/Bin Laden entanglement doesn’t seem to have that potential.
Re: the anthropic principle and PoM. I find it a little unfair that when scientists gossip all day long about whether we are alone in the universe or whether it’s all so much hubris and sit up all night waiting for ET to make a long distance call they’re doing science but when “lay people” take an interest it’s called being a UFO enthusiast, or less euphemistically, a crank.
Thank you for all the links.
By rjung:
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and
inexplicable.
There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
Douglass Adams - Hitchikers guide to the galaxy:D
Didn’t Robert Heinlien have a short story based on this premise? I think it was called the Crazy Years. A stastistician discovers a series of waveforms that predict human behavior, and that they were all bottoming out at once…It starts with people randomly taking off their clothes in public…Chaos follows…
Click here