This week, we are meeting at the Reep House downtown. This is likely to become a recurring meetup location in the future, as the host of our previous recurring location is leaving the city.
As always, vegetarian snacks will be provided.
Activity
The Control Group is Out of Control is a popular Scott Alexander article. In it, he examines parapsychology, the field of science that investigates such phenomenon as hypnosis, telepathy, and astral projection.
If you think that psychic powers aren’t real, then this is a fascinating field: it’s a good example of how attempts to do science can give you the wrong answer, returning false positives. Science classes mostly focus on easily replicable experiments like testing acceleration due to gravity or the resistance different materials had to electricity. When studying something like telepathy or antidepressants where not every person responds the same way, how do you sort actual effects from statistical noise?
Designed by Karl Zener in the 1930s, Zener Cards are a set of twenty-five cards with one of five different visually distinct symbols on one side. Karl Z. used them as part of a series of parapsychology experiments attempting to prove psychic powers existed: the typical experiment involved a test subject attempting to guess which card was being held by the test administrator. The experiments initially showed that some people are naturally psychic, guessing correctly more often than chance. Later experiments concluded that this was entirely down to poor experimental design. So my question to you: are any of us psychic? What do you think you know, and how do you think you know it?
I’ve purchased a few packs of Zener cards and a few packs of regular 52 decks, which I’ll be bringing. Let’s do some science!
This week, we are meeting at the Reep House downtown. This is likely to become a recurring meetup location in the future, as the host of our previous recurring location is leaving the city.
As always, vegetarian snacks will be provided.
Activity
The Control Group is Out of Control is a popular Scott Alexander article. In it, he examines parapsychology, the field of science that investigates such phenomenon as hypnosis, telepathy, and astral projection.
If you think that psychic powers aren’t real, then this is a fascinating field: it’s a good example of how attempts to do science can give you the wrong answer, returning false positives. Science classes mostly focus on easily replicable experiments like testing acceleration due to gravity or the resistance different materials had to electricity. When studying something like telepathy or antidepressants where not every person responds the same way, how do you sort actual effects from statistical noise?
Designed by Karl Zener in the 1930s, Zener Cards are a set of twenty-five cards with one of five different visually distinct symbols on one side. Karl Z. used them as part of a series of parapsychology experiments attempting to prove psychic powers existed: the typical experiment involved a test subject attempting to guess which card was being held by the test administrator. The experiments initially showed that some people are naturally psychic, guessing correctly more often than chance. Later experiments concluded that this was entirely down to poor experimental design. So my question to you: are any of us psychic? What do you think you know, and how do you think you know it?
I’ve purchased a few packs of Zener cards and a few packs of regular 52 decks, which I’ll be bringing. Let’s do some science!
Readings
Preparation / Questions
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