🚀 go-pugleaf

On 29/09/2010 6:08 PM, |-|ercules wrote:
> "Peter Bowditch" <myfirstname@ratbags.com> wrote ...
>> "|-|ercules" <radgray123@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>> It's just IMPOSSIBLE for a skeptic to ask a psychic a question without
>>> a right or wrong test being involved,
>>
>> It's only impossible if you expect the question to provide evidence of
>> psychic powers. Unless there is a testable correct answer the question
>> is meaningless and proves nothing.
>
>
> IT'S FUCKING EASY PETER BUT YOU SHIT FOR BRAINS WON'T TEST MULTI CHOICE
>
> I FIGURE OUT THE QUESTION ASKED, OR AN ACCOMPLICE SELECTS MY PHRASE
> FROM 2 OTHER RANDOM PHRASES.
>
> YOU'RE FUCKING STUPID MATE
>
> Herc

Herc certainly confuses the issue by the terminolgy he uses.

Each round in a test of Herc's power consists of taking what is, for 
practical purposes, a group of 3 arbitrary phrases, each terminated for 
no good reason by a question mark.

These phrases are then numbered 1, 2 and 3, shuffled, and presented to 
Herc, without their numbers. Herc will then specify which phrase was 
number 1. He clearly has a 1 in 3 chance of getting it right by chance, 
but claims that he can do significantly better than that.

The mechanism by which he believes he can achieve this he characterises 
variously as mind reading, bibliomancy, and so on, but neither the 
mechanism, nor Herc's requirements on how the phrases are constructed, 
should be of any concern to the skeptic, who is only interested in the 
outcome.

If Herc had the power, it would be easy enough to demonstrate. The 
problem for Herc is that he regards any failure of a test to demonstrate 
the power as evidence that the test is flawed, and that a different test 
needs to be devised. Herc will presumably go to his grave retaining the 
belief that he had special powers, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Sylvia.