I found this while poking around. Crichton certainly believes in spoon-bending, and he’s a pretty smart guy. He even includes instructions. Intersting.
Welcome to the SDMB, Alex.
A link to the column is appreciated. Providing one can be as simple as pasting the URL into your post, making sure to leave a blank space on either side of it. Like so: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_062.html
Ah, I thought I may have forgotten something… I do that alot, sorry.
Thanks for the welcome!
Science fiction writers refer to a certain kind of hand-waving nonsense as “Michael Crichton science.” Smart and gullible aren’t mutually exclusive. Especially if the smart part is often questionable.
The usual skeptical response to something like that Crichton account would be to say, ‘The plural of anecdote is not data’, and to point out that if Crichton himself, or any of these delightful children reportedly bending metal bars, can bend metal without just using normal physical force, and do so under test conditions (ie conditions such that we know it really IS some sort of psychic power), then they can not only claim Randi’s mllion dollar prize but also be part of a Nobel prize-winning team, thereby netting themselves quite a chunk of change plus a place in history.
But that’s just the typical skeptical response. Nobody else really cares all that much. Particularly anyone who was around in the 70s when all this stuff first kicked off. Then we were given to understand that we were on the threshold of a ‘paradigm shift’ in our understanding of what the mind can do… but now that we’re over 30 years down the line, we look around and ‘metal bending’ doesn’t seem to have changed the world much or be contributing to our understanding of how the universe works, or anything else.
There’s a lot about kids who supposedly have the metal-bending gift in Prof. John Taylor’s magnificently absurd book, ‘Superminds’, published in the 70s at the crest of the metal-bending hype and ballyhoo. At the time, Taylor, a scientist of some name and reputation, was (in my opinion) completely unable to investigate the ‘phenomenon’ successfully and got stuck on the ‘tar baby’ of his belief that it must be some new sort of power or energy. He wrote a follow-up book many years later admitting that there was really nothing to the supposed phenomenon, and that he should have been more cautious and careful. This one didn’t sell as well.
I agree that unless the spoon thingy can be proved, it’s probable crap. I just thought it was intersting to see such an account, and being a fan of Crichtons books, it doubly caught my eye.
I would be curious to know what really goes on at spoon-bending parties.
What a disappointment, enjoyed his stuff and now I find out he’s a loon. Anyone catch that Darren Daulton piece on ESPN radio the other day? Another formerly respected peep of mine now a nutsack . :dubious:
Pretty much the same thing that goes on at seances and Ouija board get-togethers: a lot of wishful thinking, self-deception, bad recollection of events and one or two cheaters.
*And it was hard to feel any sort of mystery: you just rub the spoon for a while and pretty soon it gets soft, and it bends. And that’s that. *
He doesn’t seem to believe that it’s a supernatural thing.
Somebody needs to tell him, that’s not a spoon.
“I have a bad feeling about this…”
I’ve read a LOT of Crichton and his science is bad, and his plots are OK. I wouldn’t believe it if he told me the sky was blue, however.
“There is no spoon?” :eek:
:eek: :eek: :eek: 
You, sir/ma’am, are a genius. It’ll take days to recover my dignity.
Sir, if you please. And I’m no genius, just a longtime devotee of the ancient art of spoon-rubbing.
I wonder how many trillion times you guys are going to re-type this boilerplate message before someone thinks to provide a link from the column to the board so that this process is automated.
:eek:
So THAT’s what spooning is! :smack:
Hahaha! Genius reference. You had me laughing out loud… I got quite a few strange looks.
Then you are doing it wrong.