I'd say imagination (the ability to model situations, events and people) in one's head is a survival advantage and some folks just have poor skills dealing with their own. I keep hoping that "Darwin" will kick in fot those people....
I've had *just* enough weird stuff happen in my life to suspect there might be something to esp etc. Except that it never seems to do anything useful, and refuses to be properly measured, so I'm not sure if it's even relevant.
My argument (although this is a subject that I am still internally debating, I just like to throw the left-handed spanner around here and there) is the modern age of convenience
( ... )
It's an interesting speculation, but not entirely correct. Smart people tend to marry smart people. People who are successful in society are more likely to raise children ,and have those children live to raise children. People who take stupid risks are more likely to die young and not have children.
People who are distinctly different from the human "norm", those with clearly negative mutations, are less likely to have children.
Selection is still operating on Homo Sapiens.
You could possibly make an argument that we are slowly selecting in two different directions. That the "haves" vs the "have-nots" are intermingling less and less, and that different traits are successful for each group. I don't think there is sufficient separation to engender speciation, since there are very wide grey areas around the boundaries of any social divide, and substantial movement across those boundaries.
While selection is still in place, I think that it is much of a muchness, and that some genetic abberations are still passed that may not have been X years ago.
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.
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.
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.
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. :)
This is interesting. As someone who actually has used this sort of thing to effect (I've been right more often than wrong about the plane or bus) I find your argument interesting, but fundamentally flawed in that I'm living proof such things exist.
The problem with such things is that Centrelink tends to react poorly to "I had a feeling this guy was going to do weird & nasty sexual things to me, that's why I turned down the job" so the little inklings & warnings can be quite useless under most circumstances. It can be handy though when you let someone know not to get on that train or bus & have them avoid emotional trauma or injury as a result.
I think that like all things, anything is possible, it's just that some things are highly improbable.
I tend not to believe something unless I've spoken to it or experienced it for myself.
When you say you've been "right more often than wrong about the plane or bus", what are you actually saying? Have you kept rigorous statistics of predictions? Are you perhaps subconsciously noticing underlying patterns such as particular drivers who always run late
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No, I haven't kept rigourous statistics, but I do tend to be embarrassed about the 'wrongs' and remember them, and so far I think it's about 10 over 30 years.
the problem with putting psychic stuff under testing is that putting a person under stress really fucks it up (this is where the 'wrongs' come into it) or worse, totally blocks it.
I can keep tabs of the things I suddenly know are going to happen and keep a record of my 'hit count' if that helps, but putting it under some big stress is going to stuff it up.
Oh, I've had a prediction about you. I'll post it under a me-only lock in my jounral & if it comes right, I'll unlock it & show you.
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I keep hoping that "Darwin" will kick in fot those people....
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People who are distinctly different from the human "norm", those with clearly negative mutations, are less likely to have children.
Selection is still operating on Homo Sapiens.
You could possibly make an argument that we are slowly selecting in two different directions. That the "haves" vs the "have-nots" are intermingling less and less, and that different traits are successful for each group. I don't think there is sufficient separation to engender speciation, since there are very wide grey areas around the boundaries of any social divide, and substantial movement across those boundaries.
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While selection is still in place, I think that it is much of a muchness, and that some genetic abberations are still passed that may not have been X years ago.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The problem with such things is that Centrelink tends to react poorly to "I had a feeling this guy was going to do weird & nasty sexual things to me, that's why I turned down the job" so the little inklings & warnings can be quite useless under most circumstances. It can be handy though when you let someone know not to get on that train or bus & have them avoid emotional trauma or injury as a result.
I think that like all things, anything is possible, it's just that some things are highly improbable.
I tend not to believe something unless I've spoken to it or experienced it for myself.
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the problem with putting psychic stuff under testing is that putting a person under stress really fucks it up (this is where the 'wrongs' come into it) or worse, totally blocks it.
I can keep tabs of the things I suddenly know are going to happen and keep a record of my 'hit count' if that helps, but putting it under some big stress is going to stuff it up.
Oh, I've had a prediction about you. I'll post it under a me-only lock in my jounral & if it comes right, I'll unlock it & show you.
;)
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I'll make it visible to you when I've got the feeling it's happened.
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