Newsweek and The Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect
Author Michael Crichton coined the term “Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect”. Crichton named it after his friend the Nobel Prize-winning physicist. Gell-Mann’s name was used to invoke the concept that we all may be experts in particular fields (his being physics).
The amnesia effect is that you read a story in a publication on a subject you know about and find numerous errors. You then turn to the next story (on a subject you know less about) and, forgetting your earlier experience, assume it is any more accurate.
Newsweek has just set a very low bar for the amnesia effect, in an article entitled “USS CARL VINSON ‘CANNOT SHOOT DOWN MISSILES’“. The writer is a London-based “Asia reporter” with a CV that evidences zero … Continue reading
