Wisdom is as Wisdom Does
January 7, 2016 6:59 AM   Subscribe

The markov wisdom of Deepak Chopra. "It has been said by some that the thoughts and tweets of Deepak Chopra are indistinguishable from a set of profound sounding words put together in a random order, particularly the tweets tagged with "#cosmisconciousness". This site aims to test that claim! Each "quote" is generated from a list of words that can be found in Deepak Chopra's Twitter stream randomly stuck together in a sentence."
posted by OmieWise (40 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
"Perception regulates a symphony of success"
"Interdependence opens nonlocal positivity"
"Elephants are llamas"

Yeah, this passes the test.
posted by Cookiebastard at 7:06 AM on January 7, 2016 [4 favorites]


First attempt: "Dogs are birds."

rrright....
posted by sour cream at 7:07 AM on January 7, 2016


"The unexplainable expresses unbridled creativity"

Who can argue with this?


"Quantum physics self interacts with a jumble of mortality"

Or this?

I kind of wish it was a twitter feed, though. It refreshes awfully slowly. Perhaps that is a lesson in patience for me....
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:07 AM on January 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


"Your desire is a modality of the mechanics of love"

I got a little tingle, there.

I don't think it was a Chuck Tingle, mind you.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:09 AM on January 7, 2016 [4 favorites]


See also the recent paper titled "On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit" [pdf], in the journal Judgment and Decision Making. More from the lead author in a recent Aeon article.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:12 AM on January 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


Something something, run it on a Beowulf cluster and use Yahoo Pipes to send it to CafePress.
posted by Rat Spatula at 7:32 AM on January 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


"The invisible transcends dimensionless boundaries." Wait, is this zombo.com?
posted by Foosnark at 7:40 AM on January 7, 2016 [6 favorites]



"Hidden meaning imparts reality to humble silence"


I think Deepak is telling y'all to STFU about this.
posted by HuronBob at 7:43 AM on January 7, 2016


I kind of wish it was a twitter feed, though. It refreshes awfully slowly. Perhaps that is a lesson in patience for me....
Wish, and you shall receive
posted by gmb at 7:47 AM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


"We will all soon experience the Turing Test of New Age Woo-woo."
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:56 AM on January 7, 2016


In the spirit of quantum sharing, each of us should know about this set of collectible plates.
posted by Homeskillet Freshy Fresh at 8:03 AM on January 7, 2016 [6 favorites]


Wish, and you shall receive

"The mind drives total phenomena," as the sage-bot has observed.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:04 AM on January 7, 2016


I had a college professor who loved Chopra. This post is everything.
posted by Fleebnork at 8:07 AM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


This is the most accurate markov I've ever seen. My only suggestion is that it should automatically paste the quote over a randomized hdr landscape image for easy inspiration.
posted by Think_Long at 8:21 AM on January 7, 2016 [11 favorites]


"Culture comprehends deep chaos"

Profound, yet utter nonsense. This thing works!
posted by nubs at 8:25 AM on January 7, 2016 [4 favorites]


"Eternal stillness is rooted in self-righteous acceptance"

"Infinity is entangled in karmic space time events"

"Death depends on infinite joy"

"Cats are insects"
posted by chambers at 8:33 AM on January 7, 2016


Markov Chain != Random

argh

Still, fun find.
posted by sidereal at 8:34 AM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


As much as I enjoy clowning on psuedo-profundity and woo, I feel the need to point out that finding meaning in apparent nonsense does not necessarily make one a rube. In fact, it's something people just kind of do instinctively, because we expect messages of any kind to contain meaning, the same way we expect an object to fall when we release it from our hands.
posted by zchyrs at 8:41 AM on January 7, 2016 [18 favorites]


Yeah, but fuck Chopra for cashing in on it.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:00 AM on January 7, 2016 [13 favorites]


Yeah, I don't have any sympathy for the bullshit artists, it's more the ones who are buying in who I was referring to above. Maybe I'm being too charitable. IDK.
posted by zchyrs at 9:07 AM on January 7, 2016


Doesn't cortex own a patent on Markov chaining?

"Love heals pure joy" Of course it does.
posted by tommasz at 9:12 AM on January 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


"The universe exists in us."

"It's your destiny to play an infinity of roles, eternally recorded in spacetime & yet you are not the roles you play."

"Your inner intelligence is the ultimate and supreme genius and mirrors the wisdom of the universe."

"Thinking interferes with knowing. True knowledge is in being."

"Infinite flexibility is the secret of immortality."
posted by Gerald Bostock at 9:17 AM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


just kidding those are real @DeepakChopra tweets
posted by Gerald Bostock at 9:17 AM on January 7, 2016 [6 favorites]


Worth noting that the Gujarati written at the top of the page is a transliteration of the English "bullshit."
posted by Stilling Still Dreaming at 9:41 AM on January 7, 2016 [9 favorites]


"Imagination transcends visible phenomena"
"Everything gives rise to a symphony of mortality"
"The physical world influences dimensionless truth"

This is excellent.
posted by Anonymous at 9:52 AM on January 7, 2016


I once got "Death serves subtle neural networks" when I discovered the Deepok generator. It was not only a beautiful phrase, it's exactly like some of the poetry I've written which is often about false authority & pseudo-profundity in the face of deep mystery. I was both overjoyed and saddened, because damn, replaced by a machine.

Also, thanks monju for the bullshit PDF. There cannot be enough of this because there is an awful lot of bullshit in the world. Having studied conceptual art (I know, like a bad hangover, I brought on myself) you don't even know how much I love this. I waded kneedeep in bullshit for 4 years during the 80s. I also loved the Alan Sokal hoax . Bullshit detectors, arise, you have much work to do. The random generators are so great for this, like the artist's statement generators that circulated a while back.
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 10:31 AM on January 7, 2016


Thinking interferes with knowing.

bam.
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 10:33 AM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Related. (via).
posted by maudlin at 10:35 AM on January 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


maudlin, that is a beautiful thing. Having been in the Bay Area during the 80s & 90s man oh man...I'm reionizing my electrons so hard right now.
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 10:47 AM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


"Infinity influences the progressive expansion of mysteries"

I'm a bit worried how many of these actually make sense.
posted by kanewai at 11:03 AM on January 7, 2016


"Death heals positive possibilities"

Whenever I see him on TV, I feel that, if I were a dog, I'd be growling at him.
posted by bonobothegreat at 11:46 AM on January 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


tommasz: "Doesn't cortex own a patent on Markov chaining?

"Love heals pure joy" Of course it does.
"

f;b

Was going to say something like "Cortex, cut it out already!"
posted by Samizdata at 12:22 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


"Infinity serves the progressive expansion of acceptance."

Let that marinate for a while in your brow chakra.
posted by nikoniko at 12:35 PM on January 7, 2016


Liartown did it first
posted by sandking at 3:35 PM on January 7, 2016


"Death regulates self-righteous human observation"

HOLY SMOKES IT'S ALIVE.
posted by pretentious illiterate at 4:22 PM on January 7, 2016


Came in here to mention Liartown, which is pretty much always hilarious, and which just did a series of Chopra parodies, but I see that sandking got there first.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:23 PM on January 7, 2016


I don't really have any respect for this guy after I heard that he's the sort who's rude to the little people, i.e. those assistant types that escort writers around on book tours. Can't be too enlightened if you're like that.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:35 PM on January 7, 2016


"Freedom is the wisdom of visible silence"

Nonsensical, yet poetic.

I had an "aha" moment regarding Chopra after a panel at San Diego Comic Con years ago (Chopra and Grant Morrison talked spirituality and superheroes--pretty fascinating, all told). I was never a fan of his brand of woo, but hearing him speak made me realize he really understood storytelling, at least in the ways that it resonates with the audience.

The panel, for those curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZElezm1HULE
posted by Eikonaut at 7:01 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


I had an "aha" moment regarding Chopra after a panel at San Diego Comic Con years ago (Chopra and Grant Morrison talked spirituality and superheroes--pretty fascinating, all told). I was never a fan of his brand of woo, but hearing him speak made me realize he really understood storytelling, at least in the ways that it resonates with the audience.

Even colorless green ideas can sleep furiously twice a day.
posted by sebastienbailard at 11:28 PM on January 7, 2016 [4 favorites]


I keep reading these comments with quotes from the page and feeling dumb because I can't figure out what they mean before reminding myself that they're randomly generated.
posted by geegollygosh at 5:40 PM on January 8, 2016


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