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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 06/02/2009 : 17:19:43
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Here's a chance to demonstrate your psychic gifts and show that old fuddy-duddy Randi a thing or two! All you have to do is tweet, whatever that is.... A novel experiment using Twitter by British psychology professor Richard Wiseman, in conjunction with "New Scientist" magazine, is set to be the largest ESP ("remote viewing") experiment in history.
According to Wiseman, this is how it works:
"At 3 PM (GMT) each day, I will travel to a randomly selected location. Once there, I will send a Tweet, asking everyone to Tweet about their thoughts concerning the nature of my location. Thirty minutes later, I will send another Tweet linking to a Web site that will allow everyone to view photographs of five locations (the actual location and four decoys), think about the thoughts and images that came to them in the 30 minutes before, and vote on which of the five they believe to be the actual target location. If the majority of people select the correct target, then the trial will count as a hit."
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Everyone can see the flaw here, right? But it'll be fun to see how it comes out, as if we didn't already heve a pretty good idea.
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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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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2009 : 18:21:30 [Permalink]
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| The flaw seems to me to be that a respectable guy like Wiseman is teaming up with lowest of the pop-sci magazines, New "Was Darwin Wrong?" Scientist. |
- 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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Zebra
Skeptic Friend
USA
354 Posts |
 Posted - 06/02/2009 : 18:35:35 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
Here's a chance to demonstrate your psychic gifts and show that old fuddy-duddy Randi a thing or two! All you have to do is tweet, whatever that is.... A novel experiment using Twitter by British psychology professor Richard Wiseman, in conjunction with "New Scientist" magazine, is set to be the largest ESP ("remote viewing") experiment in history.
According to Wiseman, this is how it works:
"At 3 PM (GMT) each day, I will travel to a randomly selected location. Once there, I will send a Tweet, asking everyone to Tweet about their thoughts concerning the nature of my location. Thirty minutes later, I will send another Tweet linking to a Web site that will allow everyone to view photographs of five locations (the actual location and four decoys), think about the thoughts and images that came to them in the 30 minutes before, and vote on which of the five they believe to be the actual target location. If the majority of people select the correct target, then the trial will count as a hit."
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Everyone can see the flaw here, right? But it'll be fun to see how it comes out, as if we didn't already heve a pretty good idea.
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As long as his handheld device transmits GPS coordinates, I'm in! 
Ok, what flaws? Hmmm.
1) Limitations on possible locations:
a) He's a British professor. Locations are bound to be within a fairly small radius of his home or work (or vacation spot). (If I were him, I'd pick a different pub every day.)
b) Each location will have to have internet access (likely via a
handheld device). No caverns, probably no sub-basements.
2) Potential non-independence of guesses, & sharing of information. He's asking people to twitter (tweet?) about where they think he is, while he's there; these messages may well influence some people's thinking/guesses. Then, he's providing a set of 5 photos for people to pick from (rather than having people come up with the description themselves). And, as I joked above, it's probably possible for someone to trace,non-psychically, the location of his handheld device (through his ISP or whatever).
3) Lack of independent verification. He hasn't indicated any plan for him to prove where he was & what he was looking at each 3pm, nor whether one of the photos really is of the place he was tweeting from. He could read the tweets about where people think he is, then pick photos that fit in with some people's guesses (or, pick photos that don't match anyone's guesses), & all the while never leave his favorite pub - the bastard! 
And, finally, the most important flaw of all:
4) Every psychic knows that skepticism creates such a negative energy field that even the most talented psychic couldn't possibly be expected to "perform" accurately under those dire circumstances...
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2009 : 19:08:07 [Permalink]
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Richard Wiseman is one of my favorite people. Last year he posed with me at TAM.
One of his sites is Quirkology. Fun site!
And here he blogs about the Twitter Experiment.
If you are still wondering, Wiseman is most definitely a skeptic. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Zebra
Skeptic Friend
USA
354 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2009 : 22:08:35 [Permalink]
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I freely admit having typed my comments above without following the link, thus without actually reading anything about the planned procedure.
Now, seeing the photo, I'll add: Oh, that's who's doing this! I love his Quirkology videos - and he did the colour changing trick one, too. (With a gorilla suit in the background of one shot - didja notice?)
But seeing his blog entry, I have another potential limitation to mention. He says, | If the majority of people select the correct target then the trial will count as a hit, otherwise it will count as a miss. |
So he's looking for whether or not the masses are correct, rather than whether any single follower has a higher success rate than average?
He could well miss a true psychic this way, one of the group who follows, tweets, guesses, etc, but whose correct responses are lost in the random noise responses of the rest of the crowd.
(Well, he'd miss a true "receptive" psychic this way. I suppose if there were a psychic who could transmit the correct answer to at least half of the others, or at least could convince them via twitter to follow his/her lead, then the psychic might be able to influence the results & show his/her powers.)
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2009 : 00:46:42 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
Richard Wiseman is one of my favorite people. Last year he posed with me at TAM.
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Is that Phil Plait's evil twin?
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2009 : 02:53:45 [Permalink]
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One of his sites is Quirkology. Fun site!
And here he blogs about the Twitter Experiment.
If you are still wondering, Wiseman is most definitely a skeptic. |
Ah, I see.....
I now suspect that he has conned New Sciestist into helping pull this gag off, strictly for his own amusement. Well done, I say! Well done! Pass along my congratulations, Kil!
The main flaw in his project is that he's not doing it on April First. 
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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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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2009 : 08:47:25 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
One of his sites is Quirkology. Fun site!
And here he blogs about the Twitter Experiment.
If you are still wondering, Wiseman is most definitely a skeptic. |
Ah, I see.....
I now suspect that he has conned New Sciestist into helping pull this gag off, strictly for his own amusement. Well done, I say! Well done! Pass along my congratulations, Kil!
The main flaw in his project is that he's not doing it on April First.
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While funny as hell, I don't think it's a complete joke. Wiseman really does investigate psychic claims. And this will not be the first time that he set up one of his experiments so that thousands of people will be involved. I think there is an aspect of just goofing on twitter with this one. His relationship to New Scientist is unknown to me. For all I know, they approached him.
Also, I didn't mean to say that I know him personally as a good friend. While I have seen him enough times, what I am is a big fan of his. I buy his books and subscribe to his website. (I get his news letters.) His presentations have been one of the highlights of TAM. I'm sorry he is not on the bill this year.
As for looking like Phil Plait there is this from my TAM4 report:
| Okay now, as it happens Michelle and I placed ourselves pretty close the back of the hall. So when Wiseman returned [after a short film that he made] and the people in front started laughing, we at first didn't know why. It turned out that Phil Plait, who looks a lot like Wiseman, and dressed like Wiseman, came back out to continue the lecture. I read later on The Bad Astronomy Blog that the attempted deception didn't go exactly as planned. Plait was hoping that no one would notice the switch for at least twenty or thirty seconds. He had even practiced an English accent like Wiseman's for the stunt. We soon realized why everyone in front was laughing. No matter that it didn't go off as planned, it was very funny anyhow. |
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Calling all twits! Calling all twits!
