Psychic powers vs evolution

[politas]

I'm not entirely certain, but I think that evolution goes a long way to disproving most psychic powers.

Comments

[saluqi]

I know you're talking woo woo here, but here's a tangential observation that I think is often missed.

There are a range of scenario based analytical kills, including those employed by psychics, which can be learnt. Mostly the ability to solicit and put together pieces of information in ways that are not often detected by others. Similar in some respects to the skills of a general or a criminal profiler or a con artist.

I'd say that kind of knowledge is like other sophisticated skills which might be handy for survival but usually aren't necessary. Mostly it's enough to just whap the other guys on the head with something blunt, and steal their stuff. So preserving that kind of skill is usually pursued for recreational or pecuniary reasons. Humans don't do everything for reasons of survival.

[arthwollipot]

Not any more. That only discounts one part of politas' argument - the part that we have developed the ability recently. Prior to "modern civilisation", people did do everything for survival purposes. Remember that the "human" species (or the immediate precursors of it) was around for about a million years before we discovered writing - that's plenty of time for a phychic gene to spread through a population.

I agree totally with politaspolitas here, and by one of those startling coincidences which you think are more than just coincidences but are actually not, I'm going to link this thread on CreationTalk because it's the subject of a thread to which I was just replying.

[saluqi]

Did you miss the opening sentence where I said I was making a tangential observation? And what the heck is the "startling coincidence which you think are more than just coincidences"? I have no idea what you're talking about.

I was merely observing that a lot of what people use as evidence for psychic ability can be explained by sophisticated human skills in piecing together bits of data. That is not an argument in support of psychic ability, it's an observation.

[arthwollipot]

Oh, absolutely. And by the "startling coincidence", I perhaps should have written "that one thinks are more..." - I absolutly did not intend to direct the statement at you. Apologies if you took it that way. I happened to be posting on exactly this subject on CreationTalk when I saw Politas' post, and it was a coincidence. It was absolutly not any kind of psychic precognition. :)

[saluqi]

I did indeed read it as if it were directed at me. Pronoun trouble!

I find it tricky myself sometimes to choose between the generic 'you' and using 'one' which can make one sound as if one is attempting to emulate Her Maj. So no harm done. And hello fellow Canberran poly person. *waves*

[politas]

Yeah, I think the difference there is that those are skills which can be learned by anyone. They are a learned technique for using existing abilities, rather than distinct abilities. As such, they are not something that can be selected for, since they do not follow genetic heredity.