[extropy-chat] Why do you think ESP is Bull?

[John K Clark]

"Anna Taylor" <femmechakra at yahoo.ca>

> I am very curious to know why you think ESP is bull?

The correct term is Bullshit. I prefer it in all capital letters but that
tends to annoy people and you know me, that's the last thing in the world
I'd want to do.

> What would make you think otherwise?

If you want me to believe in the paranormal just raise my hand.

> Do you believe that there are some things that can't
>  be explained?

I am unable to elucidate my opinion on this subject.

> I am curious to know why you are so sure?

I will never be able to prove it's untrue, but I can prove it's silly
pointless and a complete waste of time, in short, BULLSHIT (sorry, I just
couldn't resist those capital letters). If after 150 years effort scientists
can't even demonstrate that the phenomena exists much less explain it, then
to call the field unproductive would be a gross understatement.

> I understand that nothing regarding ESP has been
> published in the Science references you gave, but
> couldn't that just mean that it's not understood well
> enough to give acurate results?

Nobody understands Dark Matter, and Dark Energy is even more mysterious, yet
every physicist alive thinks there is something to it, nobody thinks it's
bullshit.  Why? Because the evidence for both is overwhelming, the evidence
for ESP would fit into a nat's navel and you'd still have room for cold
fusion evidence.

Speaking of cold fusion, I said the odds of it being true were a billion to
one, but I was speaking of the electrolysis sort of cold fusion, not fusion
caused by sound waves collapsing bubbles in a liquid. Actually there is
nothing cold about this process, but I think it's enormously more likely to
someday produce more energy than it consumes than cold fusion is. I would
give it a thousand to one odds.

  John K Clark