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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 04/30/2005 : 05:29:00
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It's a project that Princton University is currently running, don't ask me why. Anyone here could easily predict the results. 
quote:
As I write this, Terry Schiavo is still alive. By the time you read it, it is probably that she will be dead. The struggle over whether to keep her alive has been dominating the news recently. The moral and ethical questions involved in the case are not ones that I can say anything about from a skeptical viewpoint. Rational, scientifically-minded people can disagree on whether she should be kept alive.
However, there is one aspect of the case that caught the attention of the skeptic within me, in part because it seemed to parallel another item that was in the news recently.
The Global Consciousness Project is an ongoing experiment being conducted by Princeton University. The basic idea is that the combined mental processes of everyone on the planet forms a "global consciousness" and that this global consciousness might in some way be detectable.
Found it over on Skeptic's News. An interesting read.
[Moved to the Pseudoscience folder - Dave W.]
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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woolytoad
Skeptic Friend
313 Posts |
 Posted - 04/30/2005 : 06:19:00 [Permalink]
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How do you know when a spike is statistically significant? Its actually more probably for 1s and 0s to be generated with long strings of 1s and 0s rather than a equal number of both (think about it).
I am too lazy to do the math myself. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 04/30/2005 : 10:31:01 [Permalink]
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Direct link to the Global Consciousness Project.
It's pretty bad. Some selected quotes:The Global Consciousness Project, also called the EGG Project, is an international and multidisciplinary collaboration of scientists, engineers, artists and others...
The purpose of this project is to examine subtle correlations that appear to to reflect the presence and activity of consciousness in the world. The scientific work is careful, but it is at the margins of our understanding. We believe our view may be enriched by a creative and poetic perspective...
[T]he goal is to see interconnection as real & creative mind as magical... But here's the best part:[A] study of apparent patterns that should not exist in truly random sequences... Yeah. "Should not exist." Of course, in a truly random sequence which runs an infinitely long time, every possible pattern will be seen, so how can they say that any particular pattern they see shouldn't have been seen? By misapplying statistical tests, of course, just like the argument that life is too improbable to have come about without help.
I think the "artists and others" are driving this project, with the scientists and engineers being dragged along to do the math. Or, they may be scientists and engineers with no training in the appropriate field(s), like the vast majority of "ID theorists."
Check out the results page. It's unfortunate that they chose red for "significant" events and a pink for those events which weren't significant, but deviated in the "predicted direction," 'cause it sure makes it look like there are a lot more "hits" than there really are.
Oh, the blackout in the Northeast in 2003? No significant response, even if you only count the "EGGs" in the northeast (an invalid experimental methodology, nevermind their claims that the work is "careful"). |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/30/2005 : 13:48:48 [Permalink]
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".....All lies and jest.
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest....."
Yeh, pretty poor science, if indeed it can be called science.
It sort of reminds me of the various psychic claims. They tout their success', few that there are, yet exactly none of them predicted the recent tsuanmi nor 9-11. If I were a TV talk show host (and Hastur forbid that I should sink to such a low estate) and had one in my clutches, the first thing I'd ask would be what's up with those whopping misses? And the conversation would go downhill from there...
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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