Nucular
29th September 2003, 06:18 AM
The other night I was out, and conversation turned, as it sometimes does, to supernatural stuff. Beer was flowing freely, so it wasn't a serious discussion, and we didn't stay on topic very long, but talking about people like Geller, we were just saying what we thought about all that stuff.
I mentioned spoon-bending, and how there's no reason to think it's actually psychokinesis, as magicians can achieve exactly the same thing through trickery. I was pleased at the murmers of agreement, but some of the reasons my friends gave for thinking it was trickery were actually just as poorly thought through and uncritical as woo-woo explanations!
"Oh God I know, I mean, if you rub a spoon for long enough in the right way, friction will heat it up and melt it so it bends" said one. What?!
Someone else said you just apply pressure and bend the spoon so it looks like you're not actually pushing as hard as you are - a bit better, but still obviously not based on actually looking at the effect.
I wasn't quite sure what to say - I said that I didn't think it was friction, because I'd tried that a lot and it didn't work, and that I thought it was more to do with misdirection, but not really wanting to become boring and explain what misdirection is, and not having the confidence to actually get a spoon and demonstrate (I've been practicing a bit, but I've never shown anyone except my young nephew!), I ended up letting the points slide, and the conversation turned to more important matters such as beer, film stars and the possibility of more beer to come.
Has anyone else ever come across rubbish scepticism like this? What do you say to people who are on your 'side', but who are still uncritical?
I mentioned spoon-bending, and how there's no reason to think it's actually psychokinesis, as magicians can achieve exactly the same thing through trickery. I was pleased at the murmers of agreement, but some of the reasons my friends gave for thinking it was trickery were actually just as poorly thought through and uncritical as woo-woo explanations!
"Oh God I know, I mean, if you rub a spoon for long enough in the right way, friction will heat it up and melt it so it bends" said one. What?!
Someone else said you just apply pressure and bend the spoon so it looks like you're not actually pushing as hard as you are - a bit better, but still obviously not based on actually looking at the effect.
I wasn't quite sure what to say - I said that I didn't think it was friction, because I'd tried that a lot and it didn't work, and that I thought it was more to do with misdirection, but not really wanting to become boring and explain what misdirection is, and not having the confidence to actually get a spoon and demonstrate (I've been practicing a bit, but I've never shown anyone except my young nephew!), I ended up letting the points slide, and the conversation turned to more important matters such as beer, film stars and the possibility of more beer to come.
Has anyone else ever come across rubbish scepticism like this? What do you say to people who are on your 'side', but who are still uncritical?