Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!Schauble@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA From: Schauble@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Re: My thoughts on NOVA's ESP show Message-ID: <16198@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Tue, 31-Jan-84 03:48:00 EST Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.16198 Posted: Tue Jan 31 03:48:00 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 5-Feb-84 04:06:07 EST Lines: 29 bly work because the radio waves can't "know" that they are supposed to couple with matter at the antenna to be produced, turn off the coupling to pass through the walls of the building, and turn it back on again to react with the radio. The same way that X-rays can't possibly know that they should couple to matter at the X-ray tube, cease coupling as they pass through the subject, and once again magically couple to the film to produce an image. And what could electronics in a vacuum tube possibly have to do with light sensitive film, indeed. Seriously. The human mind is an extremely good signal processor. Through hearing and sight it is possible of extracting useful information at a signal/noise ratio <<1, i.e. signal far below the noise. Considering telepathy only, I have seen and experienced enough to convince me that something is going on. I don't know what, and whatever it is, it doesn't work very well or very consistantly. But it is there. I don't know how you test for it, either. If you made controlled studies of randomly chosen people off the street, you could easily prove that the ability to compose music, write poetry, or dance ballet are very unreliable talents that don't exist to any noticable degree. My own theory on the topic is this: There seems to be an age at which a child developes language skills. If, by some change, a child goes through this age without learning to speak, the effects will be permanant. Perhaps there is a similar age in children at which they develop ESP skills and should be taught how to use them. Consider how we treat kids who see and hear things that the adults don't. Paul