{"id":3232,"date":"2007-11-16T06:25:46","date_gmt":"2007-11-16T06:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/2007\/11\/the-rowan-sarchasmic-index\/"},"modified":"2007-11-16T06:25:46","modified_gmt":"2007-11-16T06:25:46","slug":"the-rowan-sarchasmic-index","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/2007\/11\/the-rowan-sarchasmic-index\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rowan Sarchasmic Index"},"content":{"rendered":"

The World’s Fair invites us to make a bid for scientific immortality<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

… this meme asks that you come up with your own scientific eponym. What’s that exactly? Well, first read this excellent primer<\/a> by Samuel Arbesman, which basically provides a step by step description of how to do this effectively. Then have a go at your own blog. If all goes well, I’d like to create a page at the Science Creative Quarterly, that collects (and links to) the good ones.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Janet<\/a>, Chad<\/a>, ScienceWoman<\/a> and Steve<\/a> have already taken up the challenge. Appropriately enough, I’ve just been reminded that my tendency to be ever-so-slightly sarcastic can be lost on some people, so it’s clear that the world is crying out for a way of quantifying the “sarchasm” – the perceptive gap that makes the person you’re talking to take even patently ridiculous statements seriously. Hence Rowan’s Sarchasmic Index<\/b>:<\/p>\n

\"Sarchasm1.png\"<\/p>\n

A small or negative &DeltaS means that you are on the same wavelength, and witty repartee can ensue; a large &Delta&S means that there is a substantial risk that the person you are talking to will insist on thinking that you actually mean everything you say, with all the blank stares and possible drink-throwing that might imply.
\nThe ironic susceptibility – a person’s ability to pick up on sarcasm – can be shown to rely on a number of factors:<\/p>\n

\"Sarchasm2.png\"<\/p>\n

Obviously, if someone knows you well they are more likely to understand where you’re coming from. Britain is the home of deadpan humour and irony, so time spent there will give you a better familiarity with the conventions of the genre. Most importantly, interactions with creationists, woo-meisters and denialists of all stripes, who are in the habit of making utterly ridiculous statements which they do<\/em> actually mean, causes serious damage to irony meters, which then need to be recalibrated by a period of exposure to rational people.
\nClearly, then, my social ineptitude is their fault.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The World’s Fair invites us to make a bid for scientific immortality: … this meme asks that you come up with your own scientific eponym. What’s that exactly? Well, first read this excellent primer by Samuel Arbesman, which basically provides … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloggery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}