How interesting; according to the Wiki page on the Hope Diamond, its alleged curse was likely devised as a marketing ploy a la Blair Witch project. There's a list of the previous owners there along with their ages and causes of death, and it all looks standard fare indeed. It also debunks some of the alleged tragic deaths that were associated to its history.
They also claim these sorts of rumors are actually not unusual as a way to add mystique and perceived value to what ultimately are baubles with subjective value only. And as you aptly mention, diamonds in general were arbitrarily made valuable by what can effectively be regarded as speculative rumors.
A modern age version of this phenomenon can be found in retro videogames; every now and then you'll catch news waves of how a boxed first edition cartridge of video games like Super Mario 64 were sold for six figures, and when digging deeper into it, it typically becomes clear that whole situation was likely a speculative marketing ploy to artificially inflate the price of old cartridges, in order to inflate their market value. Same for cryptocurrencies in general (and NFTs in particular), which were likely devised as a highly sophisticated modern day technologically flavored Ponzi scheme.
I find it really fascinating how these thrilling stories stoke the imagination of people so intensely in a way that moves huge amounts of money, which in turn keeps the world moving . I find the meta aspect of this stuff even more fascinating than the actual stories - why the heck do people get so hung up on these stories? Maybe because they appeal to primal goblin-brain-type emotions like greed and fear and lust?
Would love to read your speculations about such matters, in a future article. Here you outlined the "what"; why now outline the "why" in another occasion? Good stuff, well done!
I think you could correlate people who are fascinated with curses and legends / superstitions etc with those who enjoy horror films. There have been studies carried out on why people enjoy horror films. I can’t seem to copy the link but if you Google ‘Frontiers in psychology. Why do you like scary movies?’ it should pop up.
I was reflecting on this after writing this comment, and you did approach that aspect in the article - although yes, I would find it interesting to see you scrutinize it deeper.
I suppose it boils down to balance. Humans are by default emotional creatures; however, emotions untempered with logic (therefore unripened) will create huge blind spots. As Ellie pointed out above, that would set the stage for illusions of perception.
A person will either be too naïve or too reckless for their own good. They'll be prone to manipulation and exploitation.
On the other hand, logic untempered by emotions, it could be argued - make a person lean too much to the antisocial side, and ultimately work against their best interests.
There use to be a time where diseases were thought to be caused by demons. Now we know the identity of these demons, except now we call them, viruses, bacteria, prions, etc. We also learned that some diseases aren't caused by demons at all but are caused by our bodies being out of balance.
I find it funny how we think of old video game cartridges as cursed yet we don't think of our computers being cursed if we end up downloading a virus.
What fascinates me is the fact that people are attracted to these stories, wanting to have magic in their lives, without realizing that the universe is LOADED with fantastic phenomenon. Some of it's known, most of it's unknown. Why fall for a scam?
It could be a case of half the world is out to trick the other half. Or simply a ongoing dance between knowledge and superstition, or emotion and reason. Or humanity and bestiality.
Us humans are a curious creature among creatures, as we have the highest aspirations combined with the lowest drives. Each mind is perhaps a on-going battlefield between clarity and darkness, within a world that is in itself the combined sum of the same. A marble cake of the magical and
the mundane.
One needs to be wary at all times not to fall within the side of the prey, while navigating this world is this indeed quite wondrous. And if at all possible, I believe it's quite worthwhile to also remain decent enough, and keep in mind the Golden Rule.
A life well lived is quite the balancing act, isn't that right?
In any case, sometimes making mistakes (even falling for scams) can turn out to be eye openers and pay dividends on the long run in terms of wisdom, just as long as one is open to learn from their own faults and be aware of their own role in the equation.
Yeah perhaps my last sentence wasn't necessarily worded correctly, I'm not criticizing them so much for falling for a scam, but rather taking note of a phenomenon that as soon as something is explained, it stops becoming "magic" and starts becoming "mundane". People then start seeking new sources of "magic".
I find the distinction between the magical and the mundane to be an illusion of our perception.
I do get the whole "curses aren't real" mindset, though. The Bermuda Triangle was supposedly cursed. It includes an incredibly popular tourist destination. There's so much fear-mongering noise out there. The Mayan calendar is ending so the world might end? That didn't happen. I might worry about snakes if I'm wandering through the woods. If I'm in my bedroom and nobody said they brought snakes into my house, then I don't worry about snakes. It's just extra energy expended, carefully checking under the sheets for predators before settling down for the night.
Part of it may be that hypervigilance is stressful. I hate long-acting amphetamines, also. Always worrying feels bad, man. Part of it may be that hypervigilance is status lowering. But part of it is that there are a literally *infinite* number of things in this world I can worry about. So remaining sane involves sifting the real threats from the illusory ones and not worrying about those things which are likely bullshit. Sure, there will be some false positives and false negatives in my list. But in a Bayesian sense, unless something might be made of radium and giving all its owners cancer, I assign a a pretty low probability to the notion of something being 'cursed.'
Great analysis, and I concur. In contrast, the other type of people - those with a superstitious bent, magical thinking and quasi childlike fascination for the unknown, who are both thrilled and stoked by the curse and its surrounding mystique - they might be of the Borderline persuasion.
Well, maybe so are borderline patterns (not necessarily the disorder).
It is agreed upon that personality disorders develop as a confluence of nature and nurture. In accounting for the nature side, I suspect some people just have brain wirings that favor affect while others default to reason.
A bit like the old "Men are from Mars women are from Venus" adage posits, except not as a function of biological gender at all - but rather to neurological makeup and its ensuing types of dominant hormones. This might account for why, given certain notably overwhelming conditions, some fetuses develop autism and others psychopathy, when exposed in utero to dynamics that appear to actually be comparable, according to mounting research.
About the macabre. Thank you for posting this and raising the issue of fascination with it.
There is something strange to me about the average person’s attachment to scary tv shows, books, and movies. When I was young I read horror stories. About age 8 I realized they scared me and I didn’t like the feeling of being scared. So I stopped reading those stories.
I do not understand people’s willingness to pay to be scared or see something disgusting (to me). Being raised mostly in NYC, there were enough everyday scary and disgusting things that were unavoidable—rats, roaches, the NY subway system.
Diamonds are a scam. I wear a few small ones for the sparkle. I know Cubic Zirconia is more or less the same. But, it would feel as if I were trying to fool people in some way if I wore them because they are status indicators to many people and I don’t want to play that game either.
We have two different “games” mentioned in your article:
—the ooh that is so scary game!!
—look at me, I’m so rich and fancy
I think of many things as games and my questions to myself are usually: Does this “game” interest me? Is it worth my time?
The reason people enjoy horror is because it allows us to be scared but in a safe place. Catharsis.
I remember as a kid not letting myself watch horror movies out of being afraid of it being TOO scary. When I watched a few as an adult, I was disappointed at how not scary they were. You can only jump scare people so many times before it becomes boring.
I felt more dread learning about entropy then I did with those movies, in fact it actually lead to a nightmare. I have been finding Junto Ito’s manga series to be good and thought provoking.
I do admit I do keep my consumption of horror media to a minimum since if horror is good, it will cling to me for days.
Yes, I like this way of seeing it. People should use this mindset when it comes to many things. It is all what you are willing to engage in, and what games you are willing to play.
Many years ago I went down to the Smithsonian & went through different exhibits. Had no idea the Hope diamond was featured. I walked up to the small glass case & looked at the famous Hope diamond.
It was ok. Not as brilliant as one might think a diamond might be. I wasn’t impressed, I didn’t see much of any facets when hit by light. I thought ok, I saw it, what’s the big deal besides that it was a big rock. Read the info about it. Thought I wouldn’t wear it around my neck not because of its mystery but that anyone could grab it and rip it off my neck. In less than 5 seconds I was off to see another exhibit.
Haven’t seen or thought about the Hope diamond since except for reading your post.
For myself the only reason I want to get the hope diamond is that it is preceived as valuable. Also I do not believe that curses are real, until someone can prove curses exist AND work as intended with the rigors of something like a double blind experiment they are just a gree-gree.
It has always struck me as strange that I enjoy taking risks, even when there is no reward. I love how it feels to narrowly avoid disaster. (Though, I don't believe in curses so the diamond has no appeal to me). But I wonder how the fuck so many humans evolved to be wired this way? What are the possible survival benefits? I suppose our emotional drivers are just too primitive to distinguish potentially beneficial risk from meaningless risk.
You enjoy skydiving. This is not something unique to neurotypicals.
The person that goes to check it out, that is the person that ensures the group's advancement.
The person that is reluctant and encourages them to turn around ensures the group’s safety.
You cannot have one without the other. They complement one another, and this advanced the human race. Adaptations evolve because circumstances call for them.
Those that are thrill seekers are the ones that chase new things that propel the tribe forward.
Even if ten tribes are wiped out like this, if it occasionally advances a tribe to the point where they are able to dominate their area, then it is their descendents who live on. The risky strategy might advance or destroy a tribe immediately, but playing it too safe leads to stagnation and certain destruction, just not so immediate destruction.
That would be contrary to their own survival in the long term. While people like that do exist, they would not be considered someone to take direction from a tribe.
I was once at an exhibition that featured some kind of trumpet of doom - every time it was blown a local malfunction or disaster hit and somehow it coincided with global events happening soon after. Of course I felt slight sudden urge to blow it! I laughed when I confirmed with my friend who accompannied me that he had the same thought.
I think it might go also with children's tendency to want what is forbidden and dennied (really, tale of Eve and apple is very archetypal) and wanting to see how something works, if it is true, definitely also sense of badassery from meeting a challenge. What-if itches at brain and maybe it ties at tension arisig from uncertainty too. But the potential is just somewhere between actually felt threat right in one's face and mundanity so... Also, somewhere else under some other post, there was a comment about intuition being fed fictional narratives and forgetting they are fictional. I wonder if maybe our culture is saturated with narratives of confronting that stuff.
As for the diamond - the fact it behaves differently from others might take the artificial value a step further and if there was bunch, but not very big bunch of diamonds that behave differently from others, that might be new currency. Not that it could not collapse all the same as tulip speculation in Netherlands did in 17th century. Rare stripey colour combinations were a hit until that market hit some hurdles and people actually stopped buying tulip bulbs.
I am also aesthetic over price, but the fact that it behaves differently than other (red vs blue-green) would be appealing to me alone without talk of curses. Put it on shelf as a curious oddity, that's what I'd do. Now I am reading it comes down to interaction between nitrogen and boron that are in faint amount present in otherwise carbon structure. And that this is not the only one. Just most hyped one. There are also yellow, white and orange glowing diamonds. Could be fun to collect one from each and set up a rainbow sequence on a shelf.
How interesting; according to the Wiki page on the Hope Diamond, its alleged curse was likely devised as a marketing ploy a la Blair Witch project. There's a list of the previous owners there along with their ages and causes of death, and it all looks standard fare indeed. It also debunks some of the alleged tragic deaths that were associated to its history.
They also claim these sorts of rumors are actually not unusual as a way to add mystique and perceived value to what ultimately are baubles with subjective value only. And as you aptly mention, diamonds in general were arbitrarily made valuable by what can effectively be regarded as speculative rumors.
A modern age version of this phenomenon can be found in retro videogames; every now and then you'll catch news waves of how a boxed first edition cartridge of video games like Super Mario 64 were sold for six figures, and when digging deeper into it, it typically becomes clear that whole situation was likely a speculative marketing ploy to artificially inflate the price of old cartridges, in order to inflate their market value. Same for cryptocurrencies in general (and NFTs in particular), which were likely devised as a highly sophisticated modern day technologically flavored Ponzi scheme.
I find it really fascinating how these thrilling stories stoke the imagination of people so intensely in a way that moves huge amounts of money, which in turn keeps the world moving . I find the meta aspect of this stuff even more fascinating than the actual stories - why the heck do people get so hung up on these stories? Maybe because they appeal to primal goblin-brain-type emotions like greed and fear and lust?
Would love to read your speculations about such matters, in a future article. Here you outlined the "what"; why now outline the "why" in another occasion? Good stuff, well done!
Hmm, I will have to consider it and try to formulate what I think the appeal is.
I think you could correlate people who are fascinated with curses and legends / superstitions etc with those who enjoy horror films. There have been studies carried out on why people enjoy horror films. I can’t seem to copy the link but if you Google ‘Frontiers in psychology. Why do you like scary movies?’ it should pop up.
Very cool
I was reflecting on this after writing this comment, and you did approach that aspect in the article - although yes, I would find it interesting to see you scrutinize it deeper.
I suppose it boils down to balance. Humans are by default emotional creatures; however, emotions untempered with logic (therefore unripened) will create huge blind spots. As Ellie pointed out above, that would set the stage for illusions of perception.
A person will either be too naïve or too reckless for their own good. They'll be prone to manipulation and exploitation.
On the other hand, logic untempered by emotions, it could be argued - make a person lean too much to the antisocial side, and ultimately work against their best interests.
There use to be a time where diseases were thought to be caused by demons. Now we know the identity of these demons, except now we call them, viruses, bacteria, prions, etc. We also learned that some diseases aren't caused by demons at all but are caused by our bodies being out of balance.
I find it funny how we think of old video game cartridges as cursed yet we don't think of our computers being cursed if we end up downloading a virus.
What fascinates me is the fact that people are attracted to these stories, wanting to have magic in their lives, without realizing that the universe is LOADED with fantastic phenomenon. Some of it's known, most of it's unknown. Why fall for a scam?
Humans seek understanding of the world.
It could be a case of half the world is out to trick the other half. Or simply a ongoing dance between knowledge and superstition, or emotion and reason. Or humanity and bestiality.
Us humans are a curious creature among creatures, as we have the highest aspirations combined with the lowest drives. Each mind is perhaps a on-going battlefield between clarity and darkness, within a world that is in itself the combined sum of the same. A marble cake of the magical and
the mundane.
One needs to be wary at all times not to fall within the side of the prey, while navigating this world is this indeed quite wondrous. And if at all possible, I believe it's quite worthwhile to also remain decent enough, and keep in mind the Golden Rule.
A life well lived is quite the balancing act, isn't that right?
In any case, sometimes making mistakes (even falling for scams) can turn out to be eye openers and pay dividends on the long run in terms of wisdom, just as long as one is open to learn from their own faults and be aware of their own role in the equation.
Yeah perhaps my last sentence wasn't necessarily worded correctly, I'm not criticizing them so much for falling for a scam, but rather taking note of a phenomenon that as soon as something is explained, it stops becoming "magic" and starts becoming "mundane". People then start seeking new sources of "magic".
I find the distinction between the magical and the mundane to be an illusion of our perception.
Exactly! I agree, and moreover I suspect that not being able to balance both aspects will indeed make a person susceptible to illusions.
I agree that diamonds are over-glorified rocks.
I do get the whole "curses aren't real" mindset, though. The Bermuda Triangle was supposedly cursed. It includes an incredibly popular tourist destination. There's so much fear-mongering noise out there. The Mayan calendar is ending so the world might end? That didn't happen. I might worry about snakes if I'm wandering through the woods. If I'm in my bedroom and nobody said they brought snakes into my house, then I don't worry about snakes. It's just extra energy expended, carefully checking under the sheets for predators before settling down for the night.
Part of it may be that hypervigilance is stressful. I hate long-acting amphetamines, also. Always worrying feels bad, man. Part of it may be that hypervigilance is status lowering. But part of it is that there are a literally *infinite* number of things in this world I can worry about. So remaining sane involves sifting the real threats from the illusory ones and not worrying about those things which are likely bullshit. Sure, there will be some false positives and false negatives in my list. But in a Bayesian sense, unless something might be made of radium and giving all its owners cancer, I assign a a pretty low probability to the notion of something being 'cursed.'
Geezus this is like the story of my life what’s wrong with neurotypical people.
Why do they crave this sort of chaos?
A very good question
Because beating the curse makes them feel powerful.
They get attention, which they crave because it plays to their pride and vanity and need for recognition.
Owning something priceless elevates them above others in their own minds.
They believe the curse will not apply to people such as they.
If they beat the curse they cheat death, they become God.
To be fair most of the owners were probably narcissists.
Great analysis, and I concur. In contrast, the other type of people - those with a superstitious bent, magical thinking and quasi childlike fascination for the unknown, who are both thrilled and stoked by the curse and its surrounding mystique - they might be of the Borderline persuasion.
Doubtful. It seems to be an exceptionally common human trait.
Well, maybe so are borderline patterns (not necessarily the disorder).
It is agreed upon that personality disorders develop as a confluence of nature and nurture. In accounting for the nature side, I suspect some people just have brain wirings that favor affect while others default to reason.
A bit like the old "Men are from Mars women are from Venus" adage posits, except not as a function of biological gender at all - but rather to neurological makeup and its ensuing types of dominant hormones. This might account for why, given certain notably overwhelming conditions, some fetuses develop autism and others psychopathy, when exposed in utero to dynamics that appear to actually be comparable, according to mounting research.
My best guess: because thrillz and buck$$$, both of which often go hand in hand.
About the macabre. Thank you for posting this and raising the issue of fascination with it.
There is something strange to me about the average person’s attachment to scary tv shows, books, and movies. When I was young I read horror stories. About age 8 I realized they scared me and I didn’t like the feeling of being scared. So I stopped reading those stories.
I do not understand people’s willingness to pay to be scared or see something disgusting (to me). Being raised mostly in NYC, there were enough everyday scary and disgusting things that were unavoidable—rats, roaches, the NY subway system.
Diamonds are a scam. I wear a few small ones for the sparkle. I know Cubic Zirconia is more or less the same. But, it would feel as if I were trying to fool people in some way if I wore them because they are status indicators to many people and I don’t want to play that game either.
We have two different “games” mentioned in your article:
—the ooh that is so scary game!!
—look at me, I’m so rich and fancy
I think of many things as games and my questions to myself are usually: Does this “game” interest me? Is it worth my time?
The reason people enjoy horror is because it allows us to be scared but in a safe place. Catharsis.
I remember as a kid not letting myself watch horror movies out of being afraid of it being TOO scary. When I watched a few as an adult, I was disappointed at how not scary they were. You can only jump scare people so many times before it becomes boring.
I felt more dread learning about entropy then I did with those movies, in fact it actually lead to a nightmare. I have been finding Junto Ito’s manga series to be good and thought provoking.
I do admit I do keep my consumption of horror media to a minimum since if horror is good, it will cling to me for days.
Yes, I like this way of seeing it. People should use this mindset when it comes to many things. It is all what you are willing to engage in, and what games you are willing to play.
OMG sometimes your so funny!
I don't believe in curses, so there's that.
I am attracted to sparkly things and like blue diamonds, but I prefer the greenish blue ones. So the hope diamond wouldn't be my thing.
Your right in that the setting is boring.
Plus it would just be to Gody to wear.
I wouldn't want the attention it would bring either.
On the other hand if I had it, I'd sell it, put the money in the bank and live off the interest.
If it were in some artistic and beautiful setting, it might be something I'd want, but it's not.
The red glow is interesting though, I wasn't aware it did that. I'll have to check out my blue diamond now to see if it glows.
Many years ago I went down to the Smithsonian & went through different exhibits. Had no idea the Hope diamond was featured. I walked up to the small glass case & looked at the famous Hope diamond.
It was ok. Not as brilliant as one might think a diamond might be. I wasn’t impressed, I didn’t see much of any facets when hit by light. I thought ok, I saw it, what’s the big deal besides that it was a big rock. Read the info about it. Thought I wouldn’t wear it around my neck not because of its mystery but that anyone could grab it and rip it off my neck. In less than 5 seconds I was off to see another exhibit.
Haven’t seen or thought about the Hope diamond since except for reading your post.
For myself the only reason I want to get the hope diamond is that it is preceived as valuable. Also I do not believe that curses are real, until someone can prove curses exist AND work as intended with the rigors of something like a double blind experiment they are just a gree-gree.
Fair enough
It has always struck me as strange that I enjoy taking risks, even when there is no reward. I love how it feels to narrowly avoid disaster. (Though, I don't believe in curses so the diamond has no appeal to me). But I wonder how the fuck so many humans evolved to be wired this way? What are the possible survival benefits? I suppose our emotional drivers are just too primitive to distinguish potentially beneficial risk from meaningless risk.
You enjoy skydiving. This is not something unique to neurotypicals.
A sound in the bushes can mean many things.
The person that goes to check it out, that is the person that ensures the group's advancement.
The person that is reluctant and encourages them to turn around ensures the group’s safety.
You cannot have one without the other. They complement one another, and this advanced the human race. Adaptations evolve because circumstances call for them.
Those that are thrill seekers are the ones that chase new things that propel the tribe forward.
Or they recklessly put the tribe at risk for being wiped off the map completely just to fulfill an insatiable need for another burst of adrenaline. 🤷
Even if ten tribes are wiped out like this, if it occasionally advances a tribe to the point where they are able to dominate their area, then it is their descendents who live on. The risky strategy might advance or destroy a tribe immediately, but playing it too safe leads to stagnation and certain destruction, just not so immediate destruction.
That would be contrary to their own survival in the long term. While people like that do exist, they would not be considered someone to take direction from a tribe.
I was once at an exhibition that featured some kind of trumpet of doom - every time it was blown a local malfunction or disaster hit and somehow it coincided with global events happening soon after. Of course I felt slight sudden urge to blow it! I laughed when I confirmed with my friend who accompannied me that he had the same thought.
I think it might go also with children's tendency to want what is forbidden and dennied (really, tale of Eve and apple is very archetypal) and wanting to see how something works, if it is true, definitely also sense of badassery from meeting a challenge. What-if itches at brain and maybe it ties at tension arisig from uncertainty too. But the potential is just somewhere between actually felt threat right in one's face and mundanity so... Also, somewhere else under some other post, there was a comment about intuition being fed fictional narratives and forgetting they are fictional. I wonder if maybe our culture is saturated with narratives of confronting that stuff.
As for the diamond - the fact it behaves differently from others might take the artificial value a step further and if there was bunch, but not very big bunch of diamonds that behave differently from others, that might be new currency. Not that it could not collapse all the same as tulip speculation in Netherlands did in 17th century. Rare stripey colour combinations were a hit until that market hit some hurdles and people actually stopped buying tulip bulbs.
I am also aesthetic over price, but the fact that it behaves differently than other (red vs blue-green) would be appealing to me alone without talk of curses. Put it on shelf as a curious oddity, that's what I'd do. Now I am reading it comes down to interaction between nitrogen and boron that are in faint amount present in otherwise carbon structure. And that this is not the only one. Just most hyped one. There are also yellow, white and orange glowing diamonds. Could be fun to collect one from each and set up a rainbow sequence on a shelf.
You would think that they would want to be seen as someone whose brain cells are holding hands though.