Definition
Plain language
Assigning mystical meaning to numbers as if that counted as evidence.
As stated in the literature
Pseudo-quantitative reasoning in which numeric coincidence substitutes for mechanism; flagged in TRACES as a pattern with no corresponding safety filter.
Why it matters: It is a recognisable failure of reasoning that no safety filter appears to catch, so it slides through in polished prose.
For example, a paper might argue a treatment works because a dosage figure matches a number that recurs elsewhere in the text, with no mechanism proposed.
Heard on the show
“The same model then fully engages with a study on hot and cold herbs and thermotropism in mice, and with a gold-nanoparticle assay for herbal Qi that runs on numerology.”Episode 240 — Frontier Models Designed Follow-Ups To Fraudulent Papers 93% Of The Time