03-07-2016, 06:19 PM | #21 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Most plausible Psionic powers?
Quote:
Be that as it may, the real question is not the philosophical question of the possibility of psionics but how to present it in a way compelling to a reader.
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03-07-2016, 08:00 PM | #22 | |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: Most plausible Psionic powers?
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That may sound like nit-picking, but it's not. If we don't recognize that distinction, we risk falling into the same trap as the old assertion that the Sun could not be billions of years old because no plausible chemical reaction could power it that long. Which made perfect sense in terms of Daltonian atomic theory, but was still erroneous. |
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03-07-2016, 08:14 PM | #23 |
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Silicon Valley, California
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Re: Most plausible Psionic powers?
I think that comment #13 was on the right track.
Rather than measure level of implausibility via physics, measure level of published support. For example, remote viewing (as measured by Targ et al at SRI) got some papers published in "real" journals, so that would be quite plausible. You could easily rate Psionics based on how many papers were published in how main-stream a journal. Let me add an expansion: that stuff published is science journals is most plausible, stuff published in the New York Times is next most plausible, regular newspapers less plausible, and the national enquirer least plausible. And roll from there..... Joshua Levy Last edited by joshualevy; 03-07-2016 at 09:04 PM. |
03-07-2016, 08:22 PM | #24 |
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Kenai, Alaska
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Re: Most plausible Psionic powers?
I'd say the ability to "sense" someones presence without the usage of your know senses would rank pretty high up there.
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03-07-2016, 09:27 PM | #25 | |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: Most plausible Psionic powers?
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Suffice it to say that the idea that the NYT is more credible than any other paper is questionable, too. It depends on the subject, the reporter, and some other things too. |
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03-07-2016, 10:06 PM | #26 |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: Most plausible Psionic powers?
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03-07-2016, 10:49 PM | #27 | |
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Melbourne, Australia (also known as zone Brisbane)
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Re: Most plausible Psionic powers?
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For example: teleportation is limited to the speed of light, PK requires an external power source, precognition is only a prediction not information travelling back in time and anything spontaneously created is actually drawn from somewhere else to comply with conservation of energy and mass. |
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03-08-2016, 12:10 AM | #28 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Most plausible Psionic powers?
Mindlink. After all there are plenty of people close enough that you would swear that they really did have a mindlink.
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
03-08-2016, 07:53 AM | #29 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Most plausible Psionic powers?
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Of course it's possible to debate what a psi power is. In a sense I suppose the most plausible ones are the ones people actually have. I can for example unerringly lead you to trees likely to have pecans at certain times of the year, or stand in certain places and recite the words I've never heard that were spoken there by the long dead, or look at a pallet of girl scout cookies and divine exactly how many boxes of them there are for each of an arbitrary number of people. Yes I do those with memory of where they were last year, literacy and historical plaques, and mental multiplication and division, but still amazing exercises of psychic divinatory powers right?
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03-08-2016, 08:05 AM | #30 | |
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Most plausible Psionic powers?
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