[extropy-chat] Elvis Sightings (2)

[John K Clark]

"Benjamin Goertzel" <ben at goertzel.org>

> This control experiment has been run many times, however.

Thank you, you have provided a perfect example of why cold fusion "research"
is so incredibly crappy, and ESP "research" is even worse; the idea that a
control experiment is a luxury and not a necessity. But then, if you want to
find something that doesn't exist it's best not to be too skilled in the art
of experimentation.

> A number of his works in the area are available on that site.

Yes, on that site. Not in that respected peer reviewed journal, but on that
site.

> From what I can tell he is a good researcher

And how did you determine that he was a good researcher, from ESP? Or did it
come to you in a dream? It's not peer reviewed, there is no way to know if
he did anything at all except sit at a terminal and upload a ASCII sequence
onto a website. That is the sum total of what we know of what he did. That's
it.

I could easily post to a friendly website and claim to have invented a
perpetual motion machine. I could then dream up experiments I claim to have
actually performed and supply a long list of data I claim the experiments
produced. Of course all that data would support the idea that perpetual
motion is possible. It wouldn't be difficult to do, not difficult at
all, after all it's not peer reviewed.

I don't know what to say, it's like something out of Monty Python. I can
just picture John Cleese having a transcendental experience when he sees a
magician at a child's birthday party pull a quarter out of a kid's ear. Have
a little skepticism people!

 John K Clark