SPECIAL NOTICE
Malicious code was found on the site, which has been removed, but would have been able to access files and the database, revealing email addresses, posts, and encoded passwords (which would need to be decoded). However, there is no direct evidence that any such activity occurred. REGARDLESS, BE SURE TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS. And as is good practice, remember to never use the same password on more than one site. While performing housekeeping, we also decided to upgrade the forums.
This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

PEAR lab closing

Started by Hastur T. Fannon, February 22, 2007, 12:29:31 PM

Previous topic - Next topic
Print
Go Down Pages1
User actions

Hastur T. Fannon

February 22, 2007, 12:29:31 PM
link

I studied Jahn's work when I was at university as part of a philosophy of religion course and it started a life-long interest in attempts to apply the scientific method to weird shit

It's a shame, but I do think they'd taken it as far as they could go.  They got some very interesting results, but nothing that was particularly useful.  Without a model that explained what they got and also predicted other stuff that they could test (a "falsifiable hypothesis") it was doomed to stay just interesting weirdness
 

JongWK

#1
February 22, 2007, 02:31:18 PM
Princeton had an ESP lab???
"I give the gift of endless imagination."
~~Gary Gygax (1938 - 2008)

Balbinus

#2
February 22, 2007, 02:45:58 PM
Quote from: JongWKPrinceton had an ESP lab???

For 28 years no less, privately funded though.  The head of it is a big thing in some form of engineering, in which field he is highly respected and I think that helped it too.

They mostly studied the effects of human consciousness on machines, looking for indications that psi could affect random number generators.

In my view, without evident success.  And, to be clear, I am open to the possibility of psi phenomena, but I don't think PEAR did anything significant to evidence them.

Balbinus

#3
February 22, 2007, 02:47:33 PM
They say its because they believe they've produced enough evidence and want to go on to new things, others indicate that the university considered it an embarassment. Both statements could of course be correct, in that they may believe that and the university may consider it an embarassment.

Some more links on the topic:

http://science.slashdot.org/article....20225&from=rss

http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/future.html

Does anyone know if Edinburgh University still has a parapsychology chair?  I know it used to.

Hastur T. Fannon

#4
February 23, 2007, 04:40:31 AM
Quote from: BalbinusDoes anyone know if Edinburgh University still has a parapsychology chair?  I know it used to.

Yep

I know they did some good work in telepathy and remote viewing with the "Auto-Ganzfeld" series of experiments, but I don't know what they've been doing recently

The problem is, until they come up with a model that explains their results and throws up some testable hypothesis's mainstream science just won't be interested
 

Balbinus

#5
February 23, 2007, 05:33:42 AM
Quote from: Hastur T. FannonYep

I know they did some good work in telepathy and remote viewing with the "Auto-Ganzfeld" series of experiments, but I don't know what they've been doing recently

The problem is, until they come up with a model that explains their results and throws up some testable hypothesis's mainstream science just won't be interested

Well, an explanatory model is probably too big an ask.  If psi were to exist, it would indicate fundamental issues with our understanding of physics, asking people to explain that on their own is asking a lot.

I would have thought the first step merely a repeatable experiment demonstrating a phenomenon not explicable under current physics.  Working out how it is happening is stage 2, and would probably involve different disciplines.
Print
Go Up Pages1
User actions