[extropy-chat] Movie: WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW!?

[Damien Broderick]

At 03:15 PM 11/25/2004 -0800, Adrian wrote:

> > Preferably,
> > find and assess more complete accounts of the trials
> > on Suitbert's site.
>
>Or better yet, on some independent sites whose
>maintainers not only have practice in reviewing
>claims of this nature, but who also dedicate their
>time to reviewing them so the rest of us can spend our
>time the way we wish to.

This is very nearly impossible to achieve, I think. `Independent' in such a 
vexed topic means `as yet unpersuaded'. The moment an independent observer 
becomes convinced that the psi data really do show something weird as shit 
happening, s/he loses standing as an independent and is seen, willynilly, 
as either a convert or a dupe. I'm extremely relieved, sometimes, that 
unlike Michael Crichton I've never seen a bunch of people bending cutlery 
by stroking it gently and then gone on to do it repeatedly myself. If this 
did happen, and was filmed, and I affirmed upon my life that it was not 
fraudulent, would you, Adrian, take this testimony as evidence of anything 
other than my credulity or bogosity? What *would* it take? A theory that 
explains it, perhaps. I don't know, it's very unsettling. If I ever do see 
people I trust bending metal by pure force of personality (rather than just 
being told about it), and if I learn how to do it myself, I'll be very 
tempted to shut up about it. The file-drawer in the other cabinet...

Damien Broderick