People look for patterns and co-incidences, and in the modern environment there are more co-incidences than our brains are calibrated to think are normal – what Richard Dawkins calls the PETWAC (Population of Events That Would Happen to Appear Co-incidental).
What follows below doesn’t appear to figure on the web as a 911 conspiracy, but it could easily. It sends shivers up my spine, but the fact that it exists among the millions of hours of video available to watch is merely an example of the increased PETWAC compared to when we drifted across the African Savannah hundreds of thousands of years ago in small bands of people with limited experiences available. This is the factor which creates the illusion that drives conspiracies.
1. The First Episode of Connections opens with James Burke Outside of the World Trade Center in New York. (Opening -> 0:48)
2. A disaster is brewing. (5:18 -> 6:50)
3. (8:45 ->) A plane is heading towards the buildings at the opening. Its flight number…
Another retrospectively creepy moment is at the end of the fourth episode “Faith in Numbers” (7:45 in this clip):