Virtual Reality Gaming System Tests for Telepathy

Big Ben writes "UK scientists have built a virtual computer world designed to test telepathic ability. Approximately 100 participants will take part in the group gaming experiment at the University of Manchester which aims to test whether telepathy exists between individuals using the system. The project will also look at how telepathic abilities may vary depending on the relationships which exist between participants." Note: for their sakes, I hope they succeed in proving anything paranormal's going on — if they can reproduce such a result, it could earn them the $1 million prize long offered by the James Randi Educational Foundation.

Comments

Re:Science Fiction

[Via_Patrino]

Randy will always find a silly excuse to don't give the money, like "the partners knew each other before", "they weren't 100 miles far away" or any other excuse he makes up to turn the experiment unpratical.

That's no X Prize, with strict rules, it's just someone saying he will give some money if someone else convince him to do so.

Mod parent down!!

[Spy der Mann]

Randi isn't a con-man. He's a skeptic (an atheist one, btw), and has debunked numerous scams who pretended to be psychics. The purpose of his foundation isn't to promote psychics with the million dollar prize, but to prove that there is no such thing as psychics.

The end result

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

As I pointed out, it's all available on file, and the applicants can go public with any complains they have.

Oh yes, to the parapsychology review board. If the public are randi's peers, you have made my point most eloquently; unqualified, hysterical, and prone to knee jerk reactionism. Not unlike most of the responses here.

You yourself pointed to the rules about a mutually agreed upon test protocol. That's not a standard?

Not when you claim to adhere to scientific method. That sets its own standards, which you sadly are not familiar with. What you are talking about is an agreement.

Everybody carries some sort of bias.

Everybody except science. The laws of nature couldn't give a crap, and any honest researcher admitting he has a bias one way or the other is not worth a crap.

So, you have publicly avaialable results, clearly stated and mutually agreed upon test protocols, and objective criteria for success and failure.

No, you really don't. What you have is james randi with no credibility, no scientific method, running his own half assed three ring media circus and making a damn good living from it.

I think it's an apt comparison. Show us the bias. Where have the results been unfair? Who has come up with a reasonable test protocol and had it rejected? Can you describe even a hypothetical case where they could act unfairly and not be called on it, given the documentation trail they leave? If I had a reasonable claim to the million dollars and documented proof that they had cheated me out of it, you can bet that I would go public with it. Seriously, do you give any creedence to the creationists who claim that they're shut out of journals but who never produce any rejected submissions as proof?

This discussion really has brought some wild ass and weird characters out of the woodwork. Not that this would include yourself, but I admit to being quite surprised by the level of vehemence on the part of many of the posters here. However, without fail, they have all raised the same objection: show me proof that randi has turned down genuine psychics, as though there was a vast catalogue of injured parties by the wayside while randi cackles over his booty.

So I'm going to use this post as a focal point rather than responding to each of them with the same response and receiving the same tired old shrill bawling from _each_and_every_one_of_them.

You are asking for proof that randi turns down valid applications. My point is that hes running a three ring circus (look at the front page) to his own profit (and STFU about the million already, his running costs don't come out of that, so don't get all pious on me). So heres you, asking for evidence from the foundation that the foundation doesn't really give a crap. Nice one. Added to that, their methods are opaque, unscientific, arbitrary (and if you don't like them, you can get lost, but hey, no blame or damages, remember?), and their results are dubious in the extreme, as well as being tainted by gutter press tactics. None of which makes the balanced mind any more likely to view them as anything more than an entertaining sideshow. Which in turn leads me to believe there are as many unbalanced minds on the anti-psychic side as on the pro-psychic side. Not that I fall into either, I prefer to acknowledge my own ignorance and actually try to further the sum of knowledge of mankind.

Fear is exactly what tasty pastry products of the half bakery like "psychics" and the amazing randi play upon, and make plenty of bank on. And a whole lot of people here reek of it.