4 Responses to “54th Skeptics Circle”

1. 1.   Ausrick Says:
   February 15th, 2007 at 10:41 am

   Sorry, This is a little off topic, but what the hay, I had to say something.

   Of all the Hoaxes people believe, I can’t believe I found another one, and this time while watching a TV commercial in a downtown store.

   I was getting my oil changed in my car over lunch, and in the waiting room there was a tv on, and it showed that commercial with the Honda robot ASIMO. Some guy said “Thats a bunch of crap, you know thats just a guy in a suit, people can’t make anything like that yet!”

   I frustratingly spent my wait trying to explain to him how small the robot is and from the size of the joints you couldn’t fit anyone in there, be they small child or otherwise, and how on the website they have production videos of the process and everything… which immediately led to the counter “of course they do, they made that all up to trick people, its all publicity and smoke and mirrors.”

   I also found it funny that this guy thought he was the one being a “skeptic” because from his point of view, he wasn’t going to believe something so amazing without proof.

   I tried to explain to him that skepticism as I understand it was more what I did in the situation. The first time I saw the commercial I said “Wow? really? we can do that? What am I seeing? What is really going on here?” therefore I went to the honda website, I went to wikipedia and very quickly found compelling evidence for the existence of this robot. (See, I kinda did tie it in with Phil’s post, kinda sorta )

   What this made me think about though, are what ingredients it really takes to be a Hoax Believer. I remembered back to the Penn and Teller show post where they interview Rene, and he said “There is no way we ever went to the moon, not then, not now, not ever!”…

   It seems the requirements are 1) an unbelief in humanity’s ability to perform the task in question, and 2) the presupposition that people would be capable and have the desire to conspire to deceive the populous about the task in question.

   Even when I think back to some of the HB links on Phil’s site, it seems to verify these two principal requirements, like the guy who believed space travel was impossible and we were using planes flying around the clock to create the illusion of satellites… He believed it was impossible to reach escape velocity and that there was a conspiracy to make us believe we had achieved space flight.

   I might even go further and say requirement #1 is what causes them to reject the truth claim and requirement #2 is what allows them to continue rejecting that claim in light of mounting evidence to the contrary and to solve what would actually be unsolvable paradoxes (paradoxi??) that arise from the rejection of the claim and empirical evidence. (but thats just if I want to use buzz words to make myself sound smart, I’m probably just realizing something thats so fundamental that everyone else here already took it for granted. )

   In reality, I’m still just stunned that someone thinks ASIMO is just a midget in a suit! I am wondering what am I going to run into next!

2. 2.   Gary Ansorge Says:
   February 15th, 2007 at 10:58 am

   Being a skeptic is really hard work. After all, it involves using an organ that commands 20% of the organisms energy production.

   Loved the Bixby character. Will try to keep up with him,,,

   When I was in the third grade, I was already writing in script, having learned that while attending school in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia. Upon returning to the USA, I was now in a public school system in Inglewood, Calif. I made the mistake of writing my name at the top of my paper in script, and Roy, the kid sitting next to me, made a big noise about it, wondering what it(the script) was. When the teacher learned I had been doing that since the second grade, she said, ” Well, I guess it IS time we started learning that too,,,”.

   Roy leaned over and whispered in my ear,”Now it’s all YOUR fault we have to learn something new,,,”

   It was a good thing I could outrun everyone in school, as Roy and four of his friends chased me home every day for the next several months,,,

   Some people just don’t LIKE learning new things,,,,I guess because it makes their heads hurt.

   Gary 7

3. 3.   RPink Says:
   February 15th, 2007 at 12:26 pm

   I think, Ausrick, that you have illustrated the fine line between skepticism and conspiracy theory.

   From what I have gleaned, it seems that conspiracy theorists have an innate feeling that “it” is too good to be true, whatever “it” may be. Evidence or no, their perception of the world does not permit such things to exist. “A president isn’t just assassinated without some sort of elaborate scandal.” “A famous rock and roll celebrity isn’t really human if he is that good of a singer/song writer.” “We cannot just LEAVE the Earth!”

   Skeptics take this presented evidence at face value and exercise critical thinking. In the end, the main difference, I think, is that skeptics are willing to change their perceptions based on the evidence at hand, whereas fanatics never will.

   But wow… Of all things… ASIMO?!

4. 4.   Jerk Bosses Says:
   February 16th, 2007 at 8:54 pm

   It is always amazing how a little science and stats in the wrong hands can do a lot of harm.
   It is sometimes said that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
   That all depends on whom is telling the story and to who.
   It all depends on a great degree to the degree of depth and understanding of the knowledge of the person or authority that the “story” is told to.
   If the receiver has a good amount of depth and understanding of the subject then the foolish misguided portrayl will be dismissed .

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