Critical Thinking

Discussion in 'Pseudoscience Archive' started by Eve, Sep 11, 2001.

  1. Eve Registered Member

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    Are there any intelligent critical thinking people in this place? Where are the skeptics? I'm a disbeliever in paranormal B.S.. Anybody else? UFOs, hollow Earth, ghosts, abductions, bigfoot, Lock Ness monsters, aliens, boogeymen, etc., all an escape for people who need these bogus beliefs to get through their sad lives. It's all crap, people! Bull to sell books and T-shirts. Why do you think they call it "Pseudoscience"?



    Excuse me for not using any cutsie smilies or pictures. LOL!
     
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  3. HOWARDSTERN HOWARDSTERN has logged out.... Registered Senior Member

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    Your in the pseudoscience area, dear. This is the place that the administrator has set aside for "that other stuff".

    If you want more "real" science stuff, there are a lot of other different areas@sciforums.

    http://sciforums.com/f31/s/ Biotech & genetics, for instance. I would be interested in the opinons of a "Healthcare Professional."


    Obviously you expect the pseudoscience crowd to provide facts for you, but you haven't provided any disproving facts to the contrary. In fact, you haven't even focused on any one area at all. This makes you just as unbelievable as those that you are skeptical of. Were you looking for others who "feel" as you do? Do you have any facts to support your "feeling" that your skepticism is correct?
     
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  5. Eve Registered Member

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    Why yes, dear, I realize I'm at the pseudoscience board. But does that mean one cannot discuss disbelief in pseudoscience? Or is this a "believers only" board?

    And yes, it is up to the claiment to prove his/her claims, not the skeptic to prove them wrong. If you said reindeer could fly, would I have to throw all of the reindeer in the world off of a cliff to prove you wrong? No. It would be up to you to prove your claim that they CAN fly. Is not the burden of proof the responsibility of the claiment in a court of law?

    Oh, and skepticism is not a feeling or a belief, dear. Skepticism is a method of investigating claims. Perhaps a dictionary would be in order.

    And what exactly is an "opinon"?


    "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof."
     
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  7. HOWARDSTERN HOWARDSTERN has logged out.... Registered Senior Member

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    Skepticism

    Why no, dear, every forum is very open and you may discuss anything to your heart's content.


    I disagree. It is as much the responsibility of the skeptic to disprove, as it is the responsibilty of the claiment to prove his beliefs. Science is not a court of law, but it is the search for truth. People who claim paranormal experiences generally do so in the hope that a science "professional" can make some sort of intelligent observation. Reindeer? You must be in the healthcare profession! What have you got against reindeer?

    I used the word, "feeling", because you are apparently emotional and therefore unable to discuss any subject of science without expressing further such emotional attacks, as you have demonstrated thus far.

    Skepticism has never been a method of investigating science, since skeptics are defined as being skeptical and thus doubtful. Scientific investigation involves an <u>impartial</u> search for the truth, with no particular lean toward the believer or the disbeliever, my dear lady.


    Great post EVE. Welcome to SciForums!

    <i>PS........By-the-way: I am the biggest horse's ass here! Most everyone else is pretty nice & occasionally literate!

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    ......hs/hs..........
     
    Last edited: Sep 11, 2001
  8. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Where is the evidence?

    I do not reject pseudoscientific claims out of hand. All I ask for is evidence.

    Some evidence for astrology, psychic abilities, ghosts, alien spaceships and so on should be relatively easy to gather, given the reported prevalence of these things (according to the believers). Even in this forum we have people claiming to have mind powers. Why can't they demonstrate them under controlled conditions?

    Why are all photos of UFOs and ghosts blurry? Why can't abductees ever substantiate their experiences? Why does so much of the supposed evidence of these things not stand up to close scrutiny?

    For starters, I recommend that people looking into any of these things read Carl Sagan's excellent book <i>The Demon Haunted World</i>, which gives an excellent description of what's really behind alien abductions. It also gives great advice on critical thinking.
     
  9. kmguru Staff Member

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    11,757
    The latest theory on ghosts is that they live in another dimension with part of thier energy signatures anchored to our 4-dimensional universe. If the other dimension happens to be slightly out of phase to ours, any residual effect can create a ghost like pictures on a photograph. A multispectral analysis is needed to make sure that is the case or not.
     
  10. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    So you're saying I can tell the difference between a real picutre of a ghost and a faked one by a "multispectral analysis", are you?

    Could you please explain what a multispectral analysis is, exactly, and how it can be used to tell the difference?
     
  11. kmguru Staff Member

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    11,757
    I read somewhere that instead of taking a photographic picture that works on the visible wavelengths of light, a good multispectral analyzer can pick up a wider bandwith and its components to do a FFT or whatever type analysis to see if a true anamoly exists.

    I think what they are trying to say that the key is gathering enough information to make a better judgement.
     
  12. Chagur .Seeker. Registered Senior Member

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    kmgure ...

    Sounds interesting ... where did you read about it? Multispectral analysis, that is.
     
  13. kmguru Staff Member

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    Chagur...

    With respect to the word Multispectral analysis, I have read it several years ago. I can not quote the source though. But the technology behind it including FFT is used in many technologies.

    Recently I saw in Discovery Channel (or was it TLC?) about Military using Hyperspectral technology to find hidden tanks and such (including marijuana plants among other vegetation) in enemy territory. I am sure I posted this in another topic. It uses the same technology. You might want to do a search...
     
  14. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    13,105
    My theory on ghosts would support Kmguru to an extent.

    Lets say for instance, somewhere in the world someone splits our world into parallels and you either are accidentally involved through a dosing of Non-locality conflicting with some neural function (driving by like a Rembrandt Brown from Sliders) or you are apart of the study (either purposely because you choose to or just without your knowledge).

    Lets say these two parallel worlds exist with very small changes, although someones whole universe might of shifted in a different direction, it has yet to effect you.

    You walk along a road past a fueling station, You turn to look at the pumps and see someone fueling their car... within an instant (a blink of the eye) the Car and person disappear.
    Are they a ghost?

    The answer is simple, For some reason the person and that car have reached that garage in your world, because someone involved in a parallel experiment might have shift their direction. Of course this originally had no effect on you, as you weren't shifted.... Not atleast up to the point of viewing that Car and person disappear.

    Admittedly Daylight we probably overcast this type of event, but night times and mists could make an occurance all the more prominant.

    (This means anyone involved in parallel studies should realise that everyone they interact with is like a raindrop hitting a puddle surface and intersecting with many other circles eminating from past raindrops)
     
  15. Chagur .Seeker. Registered Senior Member

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    kmguru ...

    The only material I have been able to find references NASA developed technology for satellite imaging. I imagine that such analysis could be used when, for instance, you want to differentiate between natural foliage and camouflage (the military aspect you referred to) but nowhere could I find reference to it being used to determine the authenticity of a photographic image.
    Further, even referencing 'Acronyms associated with Advanced MSI/HSI Technology', I could not find the acronym 'FFT'. What does it mean?
     
  16. Chagur .Seeker. Registered Senior Member

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    kmguru ...

    Or are you referring to Cooley-Tukey's 'Fast Fourier Transforms' being used in Multi/Hyper spectral computation?
     
  17. kmguru Staff Member

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    You got it Chagur. And also I was not clear on Multispectral technology. I did not say that using MST can discern a bad photograph. I meant if we had a MST scanner of sorts to record the ghost when people say they see them, then may be we could find out more if it is a hogwash (or active imagination) or there is something to it. My motto has always been, in case of controversy on any subject, gather as much information as possible using every type of tools available and then do the analysis. Like forensic science...

    Sorry for the confusion.
     
  18. Chagur .Seeker. Registered Senior Member

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    kmguru ...

    No problem.

    Just remember that at my age, I confuse easily ...

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  19. Mr. G reality.sys Valued Senior Member

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    A useful critical thinking filter: the invisible and the non-existant look very much alike.
     
  20. SeekerOfTruth Unemployed, but Looking Registered Senior Member

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    Here is my understanding of Multispectral and Hyperspectral imaging techniques, which could be wrong

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    Multispectral refers to an analysis of a picture based upon a variety of different wavelengths of visible light.

    Hyperspectral refers to a an analysis of a picture based upon bands of light beyond the visual wavelengths, i.e. from the infrared, through visual, to Ultraviolet wavelenths.

    The reasons you can only find references to satellites is that is the area that both multispectral and hyperspectral imaging is used, typically in analysis of satellite imagry to determine things like impacts of pollution and deforestation on the environment. Another example is both techniques are used to analyze the plankton content of oceans because plankton causes the oceans to reflect different spectrums of light based upon the concentrations and healths of types of plankton.

    Hope this is of use.

    By the way, FFT typcially stands for "Fast Fourier Transform" an analysis that is used in a great many applications, but is really heavily used in the design of wireless systems. The FFT is an algorithm that was developed to do Fourier Transforms very quickly on computers and is very heavily implemented in DSPs (Digital Signal Processors)
     
  21. Chagur .Seeker. Registered Senior Member

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    SeekerOfTruth ...

    Thanks for going into Multi/Hyper S.A. and FFT in more detail. Should clear it up a bit more than my exchange with kmguru.
     
  22. ripleofdeath Registered Senior Member

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    hey all

    welcome Eve (the skeptic)...? or the non believer?
    hhhmmmm a small ponderance for you on perception bounderies impossed to gain facts so you may learn and grow.

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    the very crust of this human plane!

    multi = more than ?
    hyper = faster than... exicited ?

    latin?
    or greek?
    im not too good on those

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    too good on the refs all

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    so if you did do a multi spectrim analysis would it include things like
    Electro Magnetic fields
    All percievable light frequencies
    Sound
    Gas and or particil in suspension/(air)
    has ANYONE HEARD OF people trying to study frequinsey of the human bio electric system as a transmitting device?
    in certain situations maybe the piggyback of pre existing electromagnetic currents, bringing a whole new meaning of the term psycho-symatic...(note this is a question not a statement)
    sorry about the spelling

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    groove on all

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    you gotta be a physicist to know how to trick someone in the first place

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    he he just digging

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  23. I think this idea has the possibility of tons of experiments, of the world all around us. I hope scientists are busy on this, has anyone read of these experiments anywhere?

    P.S. I'm going to quote your post in 2 others threads that I'm going to start in Sciforums, as 'Plant Studies' in Science and 'Plant Auras' in Pseudoscience .
     

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