king@Kestrel.ARPA (06/17/85)
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mcgeer%ucbkim%Berkeley@sri-unix.ARPA (06/20/85)
From: Rick McGeer (on an aaa-60-s) <mcgeer%ucbkim@Berkeley> >It seems to me that ESP would be extroadinarily useful if it existed, >and therefore that those who couldn't, for example, sense a well-hidden >tiger with hungry thoughts would have died out, leaving only those >having ESP behind. The ability to detect objects at a distance by >certain other means is so useful that practically everyone has it to a >considerable degree. Society is structured for people with this >ability. Those who don't have it are called "blind" and receive >sympathy and sometimes public support It would be as rare for people to >lack ESP as it is for people to lack sight. Summarizing, if ESP >existed at all its owners would have inherited the planet long ago!!! By the way, it's "premonitions". Anyway, the skill would only be useful if it was easy to control and was predictable. Further, possessors of superior traits do not necessarily defeat those without; some of the pre-men had larger brains than modern man, for example. Now, this doesn't mean that I "believe" in ESP, in any sense at all. Until a phenomenon is reliably and consistently observed, it doesn't exist. Rick.
king@Kestrel.ARPA (06/21/85)
_________________________________ >From physics-request@sri-unix Thu Jun 20 18:41:47 1985 >Date: Thu, 20 Jun 85 16:10:48 EDT From: John H. Heimann <jheimann@BBNCCY.ARPA> Subject: Re: psychic predictions To: Rick McGeer (on an aaa-60-s) <mcgeer%ucbkim@ucb-vax.ARPA> Cc: jheimann@BBNCCY.ARPA, physics@sri-unix.ARPA It is also worth noting that everything that might appear to have a selective advantage is not necessarily selected for. Why isn't everybody endowed with Carl Lewis' ability to run? Almost everybody can run 2/3 as fast as he can. I do not claim everybody's ESP talents should be equal, but that the best would be almost the norm. If a paleolithic man could have done what Geller claims to be able to do, with as little energy expenditure, he would have had little to fear from predators and would have had a full stomach.
hoey@nrl-aic.ARPA (06/21/85)
From: Dan Hoey <hoey@nrl-aic.ARPA>
Date: 21 Jun 1985 09:47-PDT
From: king@Kestrel.ARPA
...
If a paleolithic man could have done what Geller claims to be able to
do, with as little energy expenditure, he would have had little to fear
from predators and would have had a full stomach.
I really don't think a bent spoon is very effective for defense nor
nutrition.
But then Geller's fakery is hardly applicable to physics, either.
Maybe it's time to change the subject. Surely someone out there on the
net knows something more about physics than what happens when you are
impregnated by a UFO going faster than the speed of light.
Danking@Kestrel.ARPA (06/21/85)
One of my pet peeves is people who send a reply, to a posting of mine on an interest group bboard, both to me and the bboard. Please, gang - disk space is reasonably crowded all over the net and we don't need double messages swelling our mailboxes and causing us to blow quota!!!