Correlation: Difference between revisions

“Correlation”<ref>“A mutual relationship or connection between two or more things.”</ref> ''ought to be'' a synonym for “mere coincidence”<ref>“A remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection”.</ref> though in its more fashionable usages, especially among [[big data]] freaks, this tends to get — well — ''buried'' in the [[signal-to-noise ratio|noise]]. There may be something profound, reflexive and ironic about this, but it’s too early in the morning to figure out out. At any rate, the more data you have the, the worse your [[signal-to-noise ratio|signal]], and the more chanting “[[correlation does not imply causation]]” in a sing-song voice whenever anyone cites a correlation will annoy the ''hell'' out of [[big data]] freaks — which is all the more reason to do it.

“[[All other things being equal]], a [[correlation]] is more likely to evidence a [[causation]] than a ''lack'' of correlation”, is one of those logical canards. As Monty Python put it, “[[universal affirmative]]s can only be partially converted: all of Alma Cogan is dead, but only some of the class of dead people are Alma Cogan.”