Conspiracies…? Facts! – Interpretations or: “Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?”

Image of a chicken on a road, walking and screenshot of the website of the Department of Physics of Harvard University
Screenshot: Taken today at below linked page at 14-10-2025_16-11-25, local time; image courtesy K_2_K from Pixabay

When you look at the news, at what people spread around in channels, chats, feeds, social media (so-called, rather) you get the idea that half the time the rumours of yet another conspiracy theory are afloat.

It’s not easy to separate facts from interpretations, ‘sensation mongering’ from the real thing.

I’d like to add a few pointers here, for all who were wondering:

It’s always easy to speculate about the future; but just as AI… 😉 we can be wrong… 😉

When you want to get at the truth of facts, and differentiate them from interpretations, the first step would be to realize:

What exactly is a fact?

What is not?

A comparatively easy example is this:

    • An egg is a fact.
    • The answer to how it came there (on the table, on the street, squashed, or whole…) is interpretation. If you are lucky, you know for sure because you squashed it yourself…

In all other cases, check your sources – carefully!

This is regions of the world with democracy and freedom of speech as well as opinion – and thoughts.

It’s always a good idea to be careful. You never know who will suffer from falsified reports – or simple rumours…

Here’s a fun page from Harvard Department of Physics about the different ways to explain a fact, depending on perspective (note: these are made-up sentences… ! 🤣 ) :

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?