Science, paranormal and otherwise

Sep 04, 2007 23:29

Quote of the day, from an interview with Deborah Blum, author of Ghost Hunters (which I've not read yet but I want to ( Read more... )

psi, science

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noxenla September 5 2007, 00:20:25 UTC
"Science" became a better analytical and predictable tool partly by means of setting up new criteria and language for information organization.

Such will also have to be done for "paranormal" science. There must be accepted new models of normality that eliminate the "para." Different, but please, at least as diligent!

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catvincent September 5 2007, 00:29:50 UTC
I don't have a problem with 'as diligent'. I do have one with 'more diligent', as in the 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof' crowd - surely the point is all claims require the same standard of proof?

There's also the whole side-issue of science-as-fundamentalist-materialism, which is not only bad philosophy but bad science... Don't get me wrong, I like science. It's a useful and solid tool - mostly. It should not be the only tool in the box, though. And it should never try to claim either absolute knowledge or absolute dominance as a paradigm.

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Oh brother eiredrake September 5 2007, 13:21:56 UTC
Bottom line, science plays it safe and ruthlessly defends its limits. Totally human and - here's the scandalous part - punishes those who try to make the universe a little more open."Oh come on now ( ... )

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Re: Oh brother catvincent September 5 2007, 22:04:36 UTC
No, I think 'science' does precisely what she says sometimes. Go look up the life story of Wilhelm Reich sometime. Or see what's been happening to Michael Persinger recently ( ... )

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Re: Oh brother eiredrake September 6 2007, 12:48:02 UTC
I'd surely love to see it done again. Hell, one of my life ambitions is to run a long study of people casting spells in and out of faraday cages to see if spellcasting relies on EM or not. Trouble is, possibly magic isn't always a repeatable phenomena, or at least that the factors involved are not quantifiable.
That of course should not stop us trying.That's part of the reason I started a ghost hunting filter in my own LJ a while back, though I got distracted from it with the birth of my daughter ( ... )

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eiredrake September 6 2007, 12:55:25 UTC
To clarify... I would LOVE to find something beyond the normal realm of what I can see, hear, touch, taste and smell. I would LOVE for there to be magick. Hell my favorite RPG is Shadowrun because not only do you get the high tech factor you get people chucking fireballs up the street ( ... )

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