Student of Trinity
Silver Meritorious Patron
"The Man in the High Castle" is amazing. It's just a really good alternate history fantasy, until the very end. I've been thinking about the ending for years.
I think I agree with Uniquemand. The I Ching is not really an oracle, but oracular thinking is natural for humans. The only thing I'd add, though, is that the I Ching has been optimized over a long time to work as a pseudo-oracle. The dictionary hasn't. So although I think the I Ching is really working on the same principle as the random dictionary entry, I think it works a bit better. The Tarot is kind of similar.
To be concrete, I see two values in these random pseudo-oracles. On the one hand, their randomness may introduce ideas that you wouldn't otherwise have thought of. On the other hand, their randomness may be the excuse that your inhibitions need, to let the subconscious ideas that you have had for a long time become consciously recognized.
It's the second possibility, I think, that accounts for the occasional sense of "Of course! That rings true!" that one sometimes gets from random pseudo-oracles.
I think I agree with Uniquemand. The I Ching is not really an oracle, but oracular thinking is natural for humans. The only thing I'd add, though, is that the I Ching has been optimized over a long time to work as a pseudo-oracle. The dictionary hasn't. So although I think the I Ching is really working on the same principle as the random dictionary entry, I think it works a bit better. The Tarot is kind of similar.
To be concrete, I see two values in these random pseudo-oracles. On the one hand, their randomness may introduce ideas that you wouldn't otherwise have thought of. On the other hand, their randomness may be the excuse that your inhibitions need, to let the subconscious ideas that you have had for a long time become consciously recognized.
It's the second possibility, I think, that accounts for the occasional sense of "Of course! That rings true!" that one sometimes gets from random pseudo-oracles.