An interesting story about "pareidolia in massage therapy" and "N-rays: an incredible historical example of pareidolia"
Highly relevant to the discussion at hand.
Excerpts (bold mine):
Pareidolia in manual therapy
We are talented at perceiving what we want and expect to see. <b>Over-interpreted perception has always been a big problem for empiricism. The brain is just fantastically good at making up patterns and filling in blanks </b> and palpation in a therapeutic context provides some rich opportunities for it. It is responsible for who-knows-how-many declarations of tightness, for instance. Here are several other candidates for illusory palpations, all common in massage therapy (and chiropractic, and osteopathy, and so on).
Its an open question whether or not the concept of trigger points correlates with altered tissue texture, but even if they do its likely that there are multitudes of incorrect diagnoses every day. See Trigger Point Doubts.
<ul><li>trigger points or muscle knots</li>
<li> fascial restrictions and releases</li>
<li> vertebral subluxations</li>
<li> many other asymmetries</li>
<li> cerebrospinal fluid circulation</li>
<li> energy disturbances or blocked chi </li></ul>
In each case, the alleged phenomenon may or may not be a real thing, <b>while the perception remains plagued by false positives.</b>
<b>N-rays: an incredible historical example of pareidolia</b>
While listening to my favourite new podcast, Caustic Soda, I came across a fascinating historical example of the pareidolia phenomenon dialed up to 11: the N-rays debacle. In fact, it may be one of the biggest pareidolia bloopers in history. Joe Fulgham tells the story well, and you should listen to the episode.
In a nutshell, in 1903 a French scientist, Blondlot, got himself worked up over a new form of radiation. He was certain he could see it. He couldnt. It was 100% wishful thinking. But this kind of mistake happens all the time in science and life.
<b>What really amplifies the example is that so many other scientists jumped on the bandwagon and eagerly shared Blondlots delusion.</b> That is a bit more unusual in science, specifically because science defines itself as a profession that carefully checks its facts. Fortunately, the N-ray delusion did not last long, because many other scientists called foul from the start. The immune system of science attacked the disease, and N-rays were destroyed.
saveyourself.ca/articles/palpatory-pareidolia.php
End excerpts.
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Conclusion: Pareidolia (modern) is a common phenomenon and is becoming more widely known about as the years go by. I see no reason why a search of the Martian Landscape would be immune from this phenomenon, and I see many reasons why it would be fertile ground for it.
But more on that later, after I've had a chance to go back and review something.
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