Hey, this is a nice big thread of random fun stuff.
Well, there are no psychics with records per se, let alone proven records, but last I heard, at least some people with what seem to be psychic abilities were able to help the police locate people. So, unless anything of the sort is instituted at the time, any people who were successful in such activities could be classified as "proven".
Considering the enormous amount of so-called psychics who were disproven in the past, and the total lack of even a single proven psychic, I'd consider it overwhelmingly likely that the few that did seem to get something right were probably just lucky and wouldn't hold up to a more in-depth examination.
That said though, a true scientist should acknowledge the possibility of hitherto unknown psychic abilities, so I wouldn't totally dismiss them, just consider them on about the same level as the Tooth Fairy until someone shows up with some proof. The "Psychic Staring Effect" (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychic_Staring_Effect ) is one that has been experimentally tested quite a bit and has actually gotten some positive results. Which still isn't enough for me to consider it "proven", by any means, but it should be tested further. Would be kinda cool if it was shown to exist.
Try reading past the paper, not at the paper, move your face slowly away from the page, and the sailboat will come into view.
Heh. That's kinda zen.
Just did Battleground God. I took one direct hit and bit two bullets.
Never heard of that before, thanks for mentioning it.
Bit a bullet, but I'm ok.
Doesn't this stuff depend on having faster than light travel, which we aren't capable of anyway?
(I don't know a damn thing about this stuff)
Not really, you just have to go
damn fast.
Here's a question: If the soul exists, would it and your consciousness be transported along with the meat-machine? If teleportation does work, is it really *you* at the other end, or do *you* die in the process?
Seems to me like
if you have a soul you'd probably be alright, but if you don't you're gone. In either case, what appeared in the other end wouldn't know the difference. And I'm not stepping into it. :p
When I was little I often imagined that the same thing happened when we went to bed: our existing consciousness was extinguished during deep sleep, and my body woke up exactly the same but with another consciousness in the steering wheel. Which meant that falling asleep was exactly the same as dying. I used to have some
frightfull anxiety attacks around bedtime.
I still do occasionally.
The problem is really that my childhood fear is impossible to disprove, and not really irrational given the existing evidence. Just like any existential anxiety, the curse of any animal digging too deep into its own thoughts.