Geek blog Boing Boing linked today to a video of Skeptic Magazine’s Michael Shermer presenting what he calls a “baloney detection kit.” Essentially the “kit” is a way to weed the truth from what someone only claims is true.
In spite of the biased, derogatory scenes that accompanied Shermer’s talk, he did provide many good points. Shermer kept referring to using science to test claims, and for “following the data” when trying to prove a claim. It sounded like the recipe for good science: when confronted with new phenomena, test it.
Then around the 13:10 mark of the video, Shermer throws this advice out the window. In giving examples of things he claims are “almost certainly not true,” Shermer lists “psychic telepathy, where I can read your mind,” dismissing it by calling it “surely not true.”
So, claims should be tested and proof provided, except for the things some consider too outlandish to even merit testing, like psychic abilities? Shermer would overlook a preponderance of anecdotal evidence that suggests such phenomena exists and years of arduous, peer-reviewed research that statistically proves it exists by simply dismissing it out of hand.
You can’t have it both ways, Mr. Shermer. If science isn’t upsetting convention it isn’t of any use to anyone. Only a fool would make up her mind about an experiment’s results before it is conducted, and that’s certainly not science!
On the other hand, the Boing Boing post generated more than a few comments, one of which was a pointer to a video of a wonderful presentation by Dr. Hal Puthoff, a physicist and one of the principle figures in the development of remote viewing. Puthoff is an outstanding scientist because he has what Shermer doesn’t: a truly open mind. It was this trait along with Puthoff’s prior national security background which led the CIA to tap him to lead its research into remote viewing.
And just so you skeptics out there know, Puthoff’s work appeared in a peer-reviewed journal, the IEEE Proceedings, when he co-authored a paper on remote viewing with fellow researcher Russell Targ.
Science: it works, bitches!