In the last few days I have twice been sent an email with an attached PowerPoint presentation entitled ChineseProverb.pps which promises to bring good luck; how pleasant you may think. It is kind that people want me to have good luck and are thinking of me. How blessed I am.
There is a problem, however. This unsolicited (i.e. not asked for) email promises to bring good luck and riches to me only if I pass it on to 20 contacts. It also promises bad luck such as personal misfortune, or injury to a loved one, if I don’t pass it on. That is a threat. You can’t go around making threats against people willy-nilly. These chain letters are universally horrible and the sooner people learn to delete them the moment they arrive, the sooner we will be rid of their tyrannical presence.
The Internet is full of messages flying back and forth and the less junk that travels around the better for all concerned. Often these attachments contain viruses or spyware that can infect your computer and steal personal information about you. Computers are slow enough as it is without having to compete with mountains of meaningless and unwanted messages clogging the Internet.
Finally, of course, an emailed message cannot give you good luck. Nothing can. Luck is, by definition, a function of mathematics. It is merely the occurence of an improbable event. With so many people in the world interacting in so many complex ways it is highly likely that a great many very improbable events will occur. Those of you familiar with the post hoc fallacy will recognise this. Coincidences, happy or sad, cannot be caused or prevented by the forwarding or deleting of an email. It is clearly ridiculous.
Let’s all make the world a little better by stopping spreading this nonsense!
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