He didn’t do that. He said “show me. Ok, now show me under controlled conditions”.

Except no he didn’t. The challenge was heavily criticized for among other things, having overly strict standards (moreso than most studies reasonably have), Randi himself having final say (no impartial judge), faking his own research, and him downright refusing any participants that weren’t using the same three stage tricks he debunked again and again.

I am not saying Psi is real or anything of the sort. I am saying that those who promote themselves as skeptics must be willing to be scientific or they’re just kooks working “for the other team”

To pretend Randi was scientific about his approach in the slightest is an insult to the the scientific method itself.

While I do not endorse the views and research of parapsychologist Rupert Sheldrake, he was asked about why he didn’t take on the challenge and what he had to say was deeply informative.

https://youtu.be/LLjUTvaKgdQ?

Now I’m not saying Sheldrake is anything amazing. I’m asking… why do we have a quack like Sheldrake sticking to the scientific method better than Randi? Why is Sheldrake the guy claiming dogs are psychic coming off as the guy talking sense?

How much ammo does that give woo peddlers?

It’s not enough to yell “FAKE!” As loud as you can and talk like you’re writing a rational wiki article. You need to actually stand for science and the scientific method otherwise you send horrible messages about what is and isn’t evidence and give New Age whackjobs the floor to say “Well if Randi has to fake studies, something Sheldrake caught him doing, to debunk psychic powers, why are we still questioning psychic powers?”

I don’t mean to sound mean or dismissive, but… I feel like I’m the only one who played the first Outer Worlds. It just feels like it’s one of those things that was supposed to be a thing, but wasn’t a thing.

Don’t get it twisted, I’m not complaining that they’re making a sequel. I’m relieved and hope it does better, I just remember more people complaining about Outer Worlds than talking about it. So I’m hoping this second chance for the franchise really helps it get off the ground (Unless it was a big hit and I’m just badly misinformed about how well it did)

But that 80 dollar price tag? Lemme tell you that’s not a consumer friendly choice, that’s Spacer’s Choice.

Nothing sickens me quite like Israel’s on-going genocide and America’s carrying water for it

Imagine that energy leaves Earth and you become something higher than man

Saying “Oh that’s just near death. Never mind that we are seeing active consciousness where none should exist.”

Isn’t that just moving the goal post at the end of the day?

As far as I see there are correlations with the brain, but until I see a smoking gun I don’t feel it appropriate to say causation.

However I don’t think anyone out there, even the most diehard believer in whatever mysticism you fancy would go as far as to say there aren’t correlations.

That said correlations appear to be all there are.

Edited for clarity

I believe it is something simple we do not yet have the capacity to measure and that which can not be recreated as an AI.

Why do I believe it exists? Because I experience it constantly.

I am going to tell you something based on a true story about a spring in Rome believed to cure disease. For centuries even after the fall of the Empire fell people flocked to it believing the Gods blessed it with healing properties.

The scientific minded said bad to the whole thing and assumed it nothing but a legend that fools took stock in. However people continued to come and be healed, no one could explain it.

Until the invention of the Geiger Counter and the discovery of radiation.

The legend had been true all along. The spring had been mildly radioactive! It was killing off what was killing the patrons!

No one had anyway of knowing until suddenly they did.

I believe conciousness to be a similar story that we haven’t seen the end of. Perhaps free will is one as well.

I dunno we still see things like Terminal Lucidity and NDEs all the time.

The problem with Emergentism is that it doesn’t really have evidence beyond throwing our hands up and going “We can’t find anything in there that causes it but we see there’s conciousness. So… it just emerges somehow”

It’s just “spontaneous generation” (what people believed before Germ Theory) for the brain. It’s very “God of the Gaps” in a way.

I’d sooner put stock into the Orch-OR theory than take emergentism too seriously.

Surprising, I didn’t think any IP made by Roiland was getting to continue.

Black holes are a good example of information destruction.

That was actually debunked https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-most-famous-paradox-in-physics-nears-its-end-20201029/

I’m sorry, maybe I’m just dumb, but I didn’t think information could be destroyed.

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I’ve sadly ran into this kind of thing before.

I’ll never forget the assholes I found on Reddit who tried to say that it’s wrong to push for LGBT Rights especially outside of the US because it was “Pushing Western Values where they don’t belong, like a colonizer!”

These people will come up with any excuse to be dickbutts.

LGBT Rights are based and cool, and anyone who unironically uses the term “Biological Male” is not arguing in good faith

Right? I just know she’s gonna pull some Heathers Reboot shit.

I find it odd that we doubt the afterlife.

This is a universe where nothing is ever truly created or destroyed, merely changing form from one thing to another.

And yet the view we associate with “Science!” is that conciousness is the one exception? What makes you think you’re so special that the universe will only experience you for a limited time? You’re not a happy meal promotion, you’re as immortal as everything else.

I could show quite a few unflattering articles about Randi’s controversies but I feel his supporters insist that the fact that the challenge existed was the end all be all. In and of itself.

When one must realize that Randi’s big claim to fame was the million dollar challenge and without that he had nothing.

Critical thinking should tell you quite simply that JREF’s donations required appealing to skeptics. If Randi went to bat for anything that seemed supernatural his fans would turn on him, and if his big claim to fame was an unwinnable contest then his bread and butter demanded that he never allowed the contest to be won.

It’s that simple.

Now one could say that he’d get famous and rich for confirming Magick exists but… why would he? The papers would talk about the psychic not the foundation and further studies couldn’t be done at JREF because it wasn’t a scientific research facility and James had no training in science at all…

It merely had people who were trained to look out for things like cold reading and the like.

There’s nothing to gain and everything to lose and the fact that 99% of people who applied to challenge were turned down and 0% of those who did even got past so much as a preliminary round. Well it’s a little sus.

Now I’m not saying magic is out there and JREF is hiding it. If it were then JREF wouldn’t have the means to hide it.

What I am saying is JREF and James Randi were not scientists they were showmen and that’s very important to keep in mind.

Sharing The idea that you can debunk a phenomenon by yelling “FAKE!” And doing a smug dance is something that offers more harm than good imho. Especially when you get people like Anti-Vaxxers who Mimic this behavior though rallying against medicine instead of faith and folklore.

I can get unbanned by using a VPN? I heard those get shadowbanned

Yeah but Apple really is a fuck.