The Bogeyman- Superstition, Numerology and the Mobile Phone

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The Bogeyman- Superstition, Numerology and the Mobile Phone Richard May, Special Effects SFX2, History of Technology, 5ART0035, Jordan Kaplan, 06/12/2011 Word Count: A superstition is defined by dictionary.com as, “… a credulous belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge.” It is used to refer to practices, beliefs and ideas that typically occur outside of prevailing societal beliefs such as the way the beliefs of those who practice Voodoo are seen in the Western Christian world so much so that the word has taken on the additional meaning of defining something that is based on unrealistic or delusive assumptions. The etymology of the word superstition derives from the Latin superstitio, literally translated as "standing over (in amazement)," but other interpretations include an over-scrupulousness in religion or a "hold-over" from older beliefs or conceptions without foundation in, or in contravention of, scientific reasoning and knowledge. The earth was once thought to be flat, but now we know that the earth is in fact a three dimensional sphere. Whilst many early cultures including the Egyptians and Mesopotamians thought this, we know now that it isn’t, space travel has categorically proved this. So whilst at the time of Ptolemy, the idea may have been a superstition held over from previous centuries of societal concepts of the world around us, we now have the evidence to dismiss the notion of a flat Earth as false. Above: Shot of the Earth taken by the crew of Apollo 11 from the Moon, from www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/ What I intend to focus on in this essay is the role superstition and Chinese beliefs play in the mobile phone industry. The belief in the magic of numbers can be found everywhere in Asian cultures. For instance, in the present Chinese culture: people are very superstitious about numbers that are divided into

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