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University's Box Sees Future

Cyphermage

Critical Thinker
C
Joined
May 13, 2006
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358
http://www.shoutwire.com/viewstory/14077/Can_A_Black_Box_See_Into_the_Future

The machine apparently sensed the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre four hours before they happened - but in the fevered mood of conspiracy theories of the time, the claims were swiftly knocked back by sceptics. But last December, it also appeared to forewarn of the Asian tsunami just before the deep sea earthquake that precipitated the epic tragedy.

Now, even the doubters are acknowledging that here is a small box with apparently inexplicable powers.

'It's Earth-shattering stuff,' says Dr Roger Nelson, emeritus researcher at Princeton University in the United States, who is heading the research project behind the 'black box' phenomenon.

Holy Woo, Batman!!!
 
"Again and again, entirely ordinary people proved that their minds could influence the machine and produce significant fluctuations on the graph, 'forcing it' to produce unequal numbers of 'heads' or 'tails'."
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Sounds like an easily testable claim and suitable for the JREF challenge. Maybe someone could point the good doctor Jahn here?
 
 
Kaarjuus said:
Sounds like an easily testable claim and suitable for the JREF challenge. Maybe someone could point the good doctor Jahn here?
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The experiment is called the Global Consciousness Project, and has its own web page at this location.

I agree they should definitely apply for the Challenge. They are billed as the "most significant of current scientific research projects into parapsychology" and have many real scientists on board.

The protocol could be simple. Just show them a few one megabyte samples of their RNG around an important event, and have them pick which one was produced nearest to the time it occurred.

Like Bible Codes, EVPs, and Dick Whittington, they are of course deluding themselves that there are statistically significant messages in randomness.
 
At first glance this sounds like an update of the infamous Hieronymus Machine/Psionic Generator woo.
 
SRW said:
http://www.skepticreport.com/psychics/radin2002.htm

SkepticReport covered this Quite well.
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One of the things that always amuses me, is that even after something has been thoroughly debunked, it usually continues merrily onwards as if nothing had happened, and the debunking is quickly forgotten about.

I can think of only a handful of cases in which debunking actually sunk the thing being debunked.
 
From the shoutwire article:
Researchers from Princeton - where Einstein spent much of his career
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Jahn/PEAR - Princeton University
Einstein - Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
Only a couple of miles apart, but not the same place.
 
Cyphermage said:
One of the things that always amuses me, is that even after something has been thoroughly debunked, it usually continues merrily onwards as if nothing had happened, and the debunking is quickly forgotten about.

I can think of only a handful of cases in which debunking actually sunk the thing being debunked.
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Well, from what I've heard, Randi did a pretty good number on Uri Geller. Sure, he's still out there, but he's not very widely accepted.
 
Admiral said:
Well, from what I've heard, Randi did a pretty good number on Uri Geller. Sure, he's still out there, but he's not very widely accepted.
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Does anyone know what Geller's income was last year, and how many university scientists still represent that they have observed him do things which defy scientific explanation.

I'd hate to think he was "not very widely accepted," but laughing all the way to the bank.
 
Admiral said:
Well, from what I've heard, Randi did a pretty good number on Uri Geller. Sure, he's still out there, but he's not very widely accepted.
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I had the privilege of chatting with Ray Hyman when he was in Vancouver last year, and he actually pointed out that surveys suggest the Tonight Show boosted Geller's credibility within the woo crowd.

You see: the fact that he failed showed that he wasn't a scam artist. The argument is that if it was all a scam, he would have had some trick up his sleeve and pulled it off.
 
Cyphermage said:
The experiment is called the Global Consciousness Project, and has its own web page at this location.
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There seems to have been similar projects going on since 1979.
http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/

What I have been wondering about for a while and have not had any success in finding out is -- where do they get their funding from, and how much money are we talking about?*

And whoever "they" are, do they audit the results and what is their reason for sponsoring these type of projects? 27 years is a long time to sponsor these type of projects... who is willing to do that? :confused: I admit that I find the technical papers produced by PEAR to be incredibly boring, but I have tried to read them a few times anyway. I don't recall seeing anything that indicates that they have made significant progress over the past 27 years. Which is why I'm curious to know who the sponsors are, and why they are willing to sponsor these type of projects.

I'm also curious as to why an Ivy League school is willing to be affiliated with this project considering what the results are.

I agree they should definitely apply for the Challenge. They are billed as the "most significant of current scientific research projects into parapsychology" and have many real scientists on board.

The protocol could be simple. Just show them a few one megabyte samples of their RNG around an important event, and have them pick which one was produced nearest to the time it occurred.

Like Bible Codes, EVPs, and Dick Whittington, they are of course deluding themselves that there are statistically significant messages in randomness.
Click to expand...

I have not been able to find anything that explains how the researchers can hope to accurately correlate important events to their RNG output. I also haven't been able to find anything that explains how they are dealing with cultural biases. After all wars go on all that time that are often not mentioned by the American press, but obviously strongly affect many people -- I haven't seen any reference in any of their papers as to how the researchers tried to correlate RNG output to important events in other parts of the world. Maybe I missed it? :confused:

If anyone has links or recalls anything about those issues (who are the sponsors and how cultural bias is being dealt with), pls post! :)


* Cyphermage's link does have a link to PayPal for contributions, but I'm willing to bet that is a new development and not where these type of projects have gotten their funding from for almost the past 30 years...
 
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