rb@ccivax.UUCP (rex ballard) (02/26/86)
In article <208@ulowell.UUCP> dobro@ulowell.UUCP (Chet Dobro) writes: >In article <954@lanl.ARPA> jlg@a.UUCP (Jim Giles) writes: >>In article <192@ulowell.UUCP> dobro@ulowell.UUCP (Chet Dobro) writes: >>> Parapsychology is getting around to being >>>classified as an 'official' science (I think it should have been long ago) >>>and thus should be allowed here (net.sci). >>I think this stuff should stay out of net.sci mainly because the only >>responsible researchers in the field are not on the net (or don't >>contribute anyway). >Agreed. >I agree completly. That solves most flame problems. >But, how do you go about getting an new net started...? >Please, if it can be done, get one started. This makes many people happy. >Thanx. Has science become a bastion of ignorance? Ignorance is best defined as "contempt prior to investigation". For some reason, it seems that there is a whole realm of "phenomena" which merits scientific investigation, and is being ignored as "crackpot science". There are a whole arenas where "we can't explain it" so "it isn't an 'official' science". Once somebody has done a study, the book is closed, even though there are no answers. Some of sciences "taboos": UFO's and Alien life. - Blue Book didn't even say they didn't exist! Parapsychology. Metaphysics. Anthropological Anachronisms(Egyptian Science, 2.8 million year old Modern Man) Bermuda Triangle and similar dissappearances. A possible "sunken city" in the Triangle. The Egyptian "merchants code". Creationism (any theory that "Higher Intellegence" may have interfered with the evolutionary process at any time). But then look at some of the old "taboos": Natural Child-Birth. Clinical and Applied Psychology. Manned flight. Acupuncture. Shaman medicine or Witch Doctors. "Anti-matter" (Quantum Physics). 4th and 5th Dimension. (The count is 12, last I read) The Earths Solar Orbit. A round world. I suppose the names will change when science "adopts" these orphans, and then it will be an "acceptable" science. Bio-feedback is a form of "mind over matter" parapsychology, now used for "stress management". Even polygraphs fit into this catagory. A paralytic at University of Colorado Medical Center is heading a research team which is developing an "Alpha Wave Computer Interface", the only thing he can move is his eyes. Anyone know how he's doing recently? Witch-Doctoring has become holistic medicine. Several new drugs, and approaches to treatment have also resulted. Acupunture led to the discovery of endorphamines. The most powerful pain-killer you can take is manufactured in your own body. Even creationism has taken the form of genetic engineering and bio-engineering technology. Maybe if we called it "plasma field" research instead of "metaphysics", some serious research would be acceptable. Yes, there is a lot of $%@# surrounding these areas. Yes, the information has to be sifted and sorted. Yes, there is superstition and dogma covering any scientific information. Yes, there are areas which are grey, where the facts may never be conclusive. No, you can't guarentee an immediate "payoff". BUT There may be hidden laws of science buried beneath the pile of !@#$. There may be new applications of traditional sciences that can be commercially or acedemically useful. We already know that the human nervous system is one of the most sensitive measuring instruments in existance today. We know that it is also very inaccurate. Just because our technology hasn't reached the same level of sensitivity in all areas that the nerves can sense, don't rule out what it senses. Any theory can be proven false by ignoring the supporting evidence. Someone has to search before you can research.
laura@hoptoad.uucp (Laura Creighton) (02/28/86)
In article <435@ccivax.UUCP> rb@ccivax.UUCP (What's in a name ?) writes: > >Maybe if we called it "plasma field" research instead of "metaphysics", >some serious research would be acceptable. NO! NO! NO! for heaven's sake DON'T CALL IT METAPHYSICS!! DON'T. DON'T. DON'T. DON'T. DON'T. The word IS ALREADY TAKEN. What philosophers mean by ``metaphysics'' is *not* ``parapsychology''. While I am in full agreement that ``metaphysics'' would be a fairly good name for it, the word is gone. And not enough people know what metaphysics *is* so that it would be clear from context... The first use of ``metaphysics'' to mean ``parapsychology'' i have found is in 1951 by Robert Heinlein -- but I only started looking last month. It is bad enough that when people ask me what I did at university and I answer ``metaphysics'' that I get blank stares....now I find myself getting asked questions about parapsychology...grrr. GO AWAY! FIND ANOTHER WORD! LIFE IS HARD ENOUGH FOR METAPHYSICIANS AS IT IS!!! -- Laura Creighton ihnp4!hoptoad!laura utzoo!hoptoad!laura sun!hoptoad!laura toad@lll-crg.arpa
carl@aoa.UUCP (Carl Witthoft) (02/28/86)
In article <435@ccivax.UUCP> rb@ccivax.UUCP (What's in a name ?) writes: >>>I think this stuff should stay out of net.sci mainly because the only >>>responsible researchers in the field are not on the net (or don't >>>contribute anyway). >Has science become a bastion of ignorance? >Ignorance is best defined as "contempt prior to investigation". >For some reason, it seems that there is a whole realm of "phenomena" which >merits scientific investigation, and is being ignored as "crackpot science". > My comment to this general type of posting follows below. > >Bio-feedback is a form of "mind over matter" parapsychology, now used >for "stress management". Even polygraphs fit into this catagory. >approaches to treatment have also resulted. > This is garbage. Nerves can always move the muscles they are attached to. this has nothing to do with parapsychology. I of course take exception to the use of "ology" in conjunction with such a bullshit field. >Even creationism has taken the form of genetic engineering and bio-engineering >technology. > Total crap. Creationism refers to Deists who think the world was built not evolved. My flame follows. Please use "n" if you dont want to see me insult the idiots who think this stuff has anything to do with science or reality. Now for my main point: Once again, the horseshit about pseudoscientific events and laws has shown up in net.sci or net.physics or net.med...... seems to be every 3 months as tho' a vile force caused it. TAKE A HIKE!!!!!! YOU MORONIC HYPERAPOLOGETIC CLOWNS ARE BORING AND FUNCTIONALLY INCOMPETENT! And no, I do NOT have to take this crap seriously just because you once heard someone claim to be an expert and claim it's true. Go talk to travelling evangelists and get the hell out of reality groups on the net That's all I have to say. I promise to stop wasting the net space if the people I'm flaming stop also. Darwin's Dad ( Carl Witthoft @ Adaptive Optics Associates) {decvax,linus,ihnp4,ima,wjh12,wanginst}!bbncca!aoa!carl {wjh12,mit-vax}!biomed!aoa!carl 54 CambridgePark Drive, Cambridge,MA 02140 617-864-0201x356 "Selmer MarkVI, Otto Link 5*, and VanDoren Java Cut."
gsmith@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Gene Ward Smith) (03/03/86)
In article <564@hoptoad.uucp> laura@hoptoad.UUCP (Laura Creighton) writes: >GO AWAY! FIND ANOTHER WORD! LIFE IS HARD ENOUGH FOR METAPHYSICIANS AS >IT IS!!! This is true. After proving space and time are mere illusions, one has a distressing tendency to bump into walls. Appointments are never kept; in fact, personal identity is sometimes lost as well. :-) ucbvax!brahms!gsmith Gene Ward Smith/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720 "The *evident* character of this defective cognition of which mathematics is proud, and on which it plumes itself before philosophy, rests solely on the poverty of its purpose and the defectiveness of its stuff, and is therefore of a kind that philosophy must spurn." -- G. W. F. Hegel