[ExI] Psi and gullibility

Spencer Campbell lacertilian at gmail.com
Wed Jan 27 00:58:21 UTC 2010


Max More <max at maxmore.com>:
> you could just as well ask: "Suppose that super-powers did not exist. (No
> one actually has super-strength, speed, intellect, agility, immortality,
> flight, invisibility, the ability to grow or shrink, etc. etc.) Don't you
> think that most members of the human race would nevertheless think that it
> did?"

Close! But, trickily, all of the powers explicitly mentioned here are
of the easily-verified type. To be fair, we have to compare against
much more esoteric examples; time travel might be a good choice, if
it's the sort where no matter is actually transmitted.

I would be hard pressed to say, one way or another, if most members of
the human race believe that time travel of any kind is possible. I
know that a significant number does, but I'm also convinced that the
set of people who believe in precognition, for example, is
substantially larger.

Maybe precognition is just inherently more believable. You could just
as easily argue that some factor is tipping the scales, though. Both
theories are unacceptably presumptuous!



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