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From: greg@endor.harvard.edu (Greg)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: Mind Reading
Message-ID: <480@husc6.HARVARD.EDU>
Date: Mon, 20-Oct-86 12:59:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: husc6.480
Posted: Mon Oct 20 12:59:52 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Oct-86 23:30:09 EDT
References: <217@sri-arpa.ARPA> <3598@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
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Reply-To: greg@endor.UUCP (Greg)
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In article <146@oliveb.UUCP> prs@oliven.UUCP (Philip Stephens) writes:
>In article <447@husc6.HARVARD.EDU> greg@endor.UUCP (Greg) writes:
>>An idea that cannot be evaluated (such as Mitsu's claims of mind-reading) is
>>neither true nor false, neither real nor unreal.  It is a non-statement about
>>reality.  It adds nothing to an understanding of nature.
>>
>>"This isn't true; it isn't even false!" - Wolfgang Pauli
>>gregregreg
>
>Nonsense.  Because he did not propose specific particles or equations he is
>being imprecise?  Hardly.

Whatever makes you think that I insist that a sound idea needs to propose
specific particles or equations?  I never said or meant anything of the kind.

What I did mean is that Mitsu gave no explanation of what he means by
telepathy.  The best that I can tell from his accounts of mind-reading is that
he thinks that telepathy is any extraordinary coincidence between his mental
state and someone else's.

You cannot merely collect a list of coincidences, no matter how extraordinary
or unusual, and call it a phenomenon.  It is more than likely that you are
looking at many different phenomena.  Which is exactly what I think of Mitsu's
examples:  Each anecdote is its own phenomenon.  No two anecdotes have anything
to do with each other, except that they were observed by the same person.

>Before one gets to the point of proposing a
>specific experiment, one discusses hypothesis, wild theories, hunches,
>counter proposals, past experience, and in some fields one even discusses
>--gasp-- folklore.

I saw no hypotheses, wild theories, tame theories, hunches, assertions,
proposals, or counter-proposals in Mitsu's posting.  I only saw past experience
and folklore.  I did see final conclusions (that is, Mitsu has concluded that
he has telepathic powers), but all this stuff in the middle that you're talking
about was missing.
----
gregregreg