[ExI] never say never

[Damien Broderick]

On 6/30/2010 12:25 PM, Ross Evans wrote:

[JKC:]
>         With 730 drawings a year, each with a FAR larger sample size
>         than any
>         psi researcher could hope to see, and at least 25 years worth of
>         data, I
>         don't think it would be difficult at all to figure out how many
>         winners
>         you'd expect to see.

[me:]
>     Since you are so confident in your opinion, why don't you try that
>     (or locate a study by statisticians who have already done so) and
>     let us know how it works out.

> You are making the claim for psi phenomena, therefore the onus is on you
> to provide the relevant data.

Wrong. At this point, psi phenomena have nothing to do with it. The same 
assertion John made could be adduced to "prove" that there's never any 
trickery by cunning players, no tampering by cunning lottery or casino 
owners, just a vast, trustworthy Laplacean engine that churns out close 
to a perfectly predictable result year after year. Anyone who claims 
this is under precisely the same obligation to demonstrate it, using the 
available data.

Damien Broderick