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From: litow@uwmeecs.UUCP (Dr. B. Litow)
Newsgroups: net.astro,net.bio,net.singles,net.social,net.women,net.med,net.philosophy,net.religion
Subject: Re: PSI:  Yes I see it / No you don't
Message-ID: <366@uwmeecs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-May-86 12:14:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: uwmeecs.366
Posted: Fri May 23 12:14:54 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 25-May-86 17:43:44 EDT
References: <8300@kestrel.ARPA>
Organization: U of Wi-Milwaukee, Dept of EE and CS
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> 
>    From: sunny@hoptoad.uucp (Sunny Kirsten)
>    Newsgroups: net.astro,net.bio,net.singles,net.social,net.women,net.med,net.philosophy,net.religion
>    Date: 12 May 86 00:51:57 GMT
>    Reply-To: sunny@hoptoad.uucp (Sunny Kirsten)
>    Keywords: PSI Psychic Paranormal Metaphysical Spiritual Occult ESP Clairvoyance
> 
>    For those of you who insist that psychic phenomena can't exist because
>    if that pile of /dev/null had ever proven to have any value, there
>    would have been large headlines nobody could miss;
> 
> One question to those who claim the existence of psychicic phenomena:
> 
> Evolution theory predicts that if it exists and is useful it would be
> the norm as those with the ability would outbreed those without.
> 
> Who can deny the utility of the ability to detect a stalking tiger at a
> distance?  To cloud a prey animal's thinking to prevent him from
> bolting?  To know what lies under concealment?  To perform telekinetic
> manipulation?
> 
> In short, every psi ability I have heard described would be
> sufficiently useful in the paleolithic world that a person who claims
> psi exists must explain why it is not the norm, like sight and
> hearing.  This is in addition to performing repeatable experiments
> which don't fail to work in the presence of doubters but which are
> claimed to work in the claiment's own lab, provided there are only
> true believers present...

The assumption here is that the total environment for evolution is somehow
'static' which seems soubtful. Indeed cultures our technologies (in the
broad sense) and our accumulated atr forms all modify this environment.
It seems likely that selection for certain faculties is swamped for many
(perhaps hundreds or thousands) of generations until the environment is
sufficiently benign to even allow there marginal emergence. The biologist
C.H. Waddington has a nice nomenclature for the dialectic of phenotype
as organism-type and phenotype as the epigenetic environment.

I do think though that you have raised a deep point regarding psionics
that presents a clear problem for those who are convinced of its
manifestations.*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***