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We are only at the beginning of understanding the mind and the brain. We need to look into all ideas, even the ones that seem 'crazy' to us. Parapsychology is a pretty fascinating field and was highly respected as a research area just a few decades ago.

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Jennifer Fowlie

@jennifer_fowlie

· Jan 30

In my field of physics there's a Nobel Prize winner who believes in parapsychology. He's basically the reason I don't put any faith in awards or accolades of any kind.

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Feb 4

I'm always really struck by the fact that Turing included "the argument from extrasensory perception" in his list of arguments against human-level machine intelligences. cs.ox.ac.uk/activities/ieg

Devon

@devonbrackbill

Feb 4

Do you have any idea what "overwhelming" "statistical evidence" he's referring to?

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and

One of Turing's biographers, Andrew Hodges, mentions that Turing had read Rhine's work:

en.wikipedia.org

Joseph Banks Rhine - Wikipedia

2:56 AM · Feb 4, 2022Twitter Web App

Replying to

and

I hope that, with hindsight, we’re able to see how utterly wrong Turing was to afford any credit whatsoever to early experimentation in parapsychology and ESP. It was never overwhelming, and it’s failed to replicate time and time again. It’s a pareidolic rabbit-hole.

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Feb 4

Yes, I don't expect a present-day author could reasonably defend such an entry—but it's so interesting that it was within the bounds of reasonable uncertainty in Turing's time!

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