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From: minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky)
Subject: Re: Was: The end of god.  Now is: god's back again.
Message-ID: <1994Oct28.191249.5554@news.media.mit.edu>
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References: <Harmon.776.000A2404@psyvax.psy.utexas.edu> <1994Oct28.054533.20738@news.media.mit.edu> <Harmon.935.000A420C@psyvax.psy.utexas.edu>
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 1994 19:12:49 GMT
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In article <Harmon.935.000A420C@psyvax.psy.utexas.edu> Harmon@psyvax.psy.utexas.edu (Michael G. Harmon) writes:
>In article <1994Oct28.054533.20738@news.media.mit.edu>
minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky) writes:

>>You mean, like when almost everyone agrees that that thunder noise is
>>when the rain god is angry, or that living things are animated by a
>>vital force, and so forth?  And then burn the witches and wizards who
>>don't join into that resonance.

>No, more like when a number of scientists, Arthur C. Clark among them, agreed 
>on the statistical validity of Edgar Casey's work in diagnosing and 
>proscribing treatment for various health problems through no other means that 
>entering a trancelike state in his own livingroom.  

Intriguing.  I do greatly respect Arthur C. Clarke. However, it would
seem unlikely, knowing him, that he would certify the significance of
this sort of non-repeatable experiment.  Can you document his
agreement about the statistical significance of that particular study.
I'm not saying, of course, that Clarke could not possibly have said so
or (on the other hand) that the agreement of many distinguished
scientists is adequate to establish unrepeatable experiments.  A great
many good scientists were fooled by the evidence for N-rays until
Robert Wood exposed the defective experiments.


