Face in the Clouds


Most of us can see patterns pretty much anywhere. Among the stars, in the clouds, in stock market fluctuations…the list is endless. We also tend to see faces…on the moon, on Mars and in the clouds. As with pretty much everything else, why we tend to be such pattern seekers is answered by evolutionary theory. Dr. Sinha from MIT explains:
“The information faces convey is so rich — not just regarding another person’s identity, but also their mental state, health and other factors. It’s extremely beneficial for the brain to become good at the task of face recognition and not to be very strict in its inclusion criteria. The cost of missing a face is higher than the cost of declaring a nonface to be a face.”

Shinseungback Kimyonghun, a Seoul-based tech art collective, developed Cloud Face, a software designed to spot faces in whatever the camera recorded. They pointed it at clouds for fun and sure enough, the software spotted faces just like we humans do! About 1 face per 150 clouds. Does that mean something deep or is it just a reflection of the fact that the algorithms were written by (human) programmers?


In any case, what’s the fun in being literal about everything?


Just goes to show even computers and software want to have fun!

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