Arouet
Member
I realize you're doing an impersonation, but you do raise some interesting points:
-What does it mean to have reliable or unreliable testimony.
This should be a major focus of discussion for this forum. In a scholarly way.
-Confirmation bias works two ways, as noted in the Nobel Prize winning physicist Josephson's lecture, The Pathology of Disbelief.
Confirmation bias works in all ways. We can't help it. We do it instinctively. Unless deliberately controlled for I'm not sure there's much we can do about it. Just being aware of the issue isn't enough, imo. We're all susceptible to it. It's part of how we are wired.
Humans are pattern spotting creatures - even if there is no pattern there.
-Randi's MDC isn't a good way to prove anything. It not only displays a misunderstanding or just plain ignorance of how invariants determine what phenomena are amenable to scientific investigation - and how mental states might play a role in cases where the Phenomenal seems to pierce the Material - but it's questionable whether Randi would even pay out.
I'm not sure anyone around here has suggested it would prove something.
-On magicians - I think it's useful to show how someone might fool even the most observant scientist who is untrained in such tricks. But this should not be taken as a good indicator that magicians can do good science. Randi got involved in the cold fusion debate as well, though what that has to do with magicians is beyond me. Seems like his skills would've been more useful guarding people against the ID theft his partner committed?
The input of magicians is only relevant in certain types of psi experiments. From what I understand the suggested value is re: setting up controls and educating scientists about things to watch out for when relevant. I'd be surprised if anyone seriously advanced that simply being a magician qualifies someone as a scientist.
I doubt a magician would be much help to anyone with regard to guarding people against ID theft such as his partner was involved in. His partner bought the package from a crook, who had told him it was the identity of a dead man. I'm not sure where being a magician would have helped prevent that. You'd have to analyse what skills were involved in the seller obtaining the ID - then utilise someone with those skills.