[ExI] Meta was Psi in a major science journal

[Damien Broderick]

On 10/21/2010 3:02 PM, Keith Henson wrote:

> It may be hard not to dismiss the subject on evolutionary grounds.
>
> If, for example, animals (including humans) really had precognition,
> even in a weak form and it was based on physical brain structure
> expressed by genes, then it would have developed to a highly advanced
> form the way eyes did starting out as simple detectors of light and
> dark.

Generalized musing of this kind has to yield in the face of accumulated 
empirical evidence. The rational approach is to start with the 
experimental evidence (which might itself be grounded in anecdotal 
claims that are far less robust) and then formulate models that are both 
consistent with the specific lab observations and consilient with other 
models that have been shown to work pretty well in adjacent domains. I 
can remember from the 1970s a brilliantly argued case proving beyond 
doubt that neutrinos *could NOT have mass.* Bad luck.

Damien Broderick