If psychics can predict the future, shouldn’t they win most lottery games and be billionaires by now?
Yes. If psychics existed, they would presumably win the lottery every week, or do things to benefit humanity, like that guy on Early Edition. Since no one is doing such things, I will leave the logical conclusion as an exercise to the reader.
Real psychics know that there is more to existence than the mercenary joy of the almighty buck. They use their powers to buy only those tickets that they know will not win.
How do we know they aren’t winning the lottery every week?
How do you know they don’t?
Somebody’s winning the big prizes in the lottery - maybe those folks are more than just “lucky”…
Consider this:
Let’s assume for a moment that Jimmy is psychic. What would happen if Jimmy started winning lottery after lottery after lottery? It wouldn’t take long for folks to catch on, and soon Jimmy would have his picture up next to every lottery machine with big, scary, black letters that say “DO NOT SELL THIS MAN A TICKET! EVER!”. There would, in all likelihood, be people hired with nasty looking guns and eyepatches and no other job but to make sure that Jimmy never makes it inside the Las Vegas city limits.
Jimmy doesn’t need all that.
If there are psychics like Jimmy out there, my guess is that they win small to medium amounts, just enough to get by. Meanwhile, they practice their look of shock and amazement for when they make the big grab.
Next, they head off to the tropics, smug with the premonition that they have chosen the flight that will not crash. There they will sit, lounging on the beach, sipping drinks with ridiculous parasols jammed into them, and toying with the notion that the word might not have spread to Monte Carlo yet…
The Psychics’ Association clubhouse here in Sydney has a doorbell. 'nuff said.
One can make far more playing the stock market than the lottery. Or how about starting one’s own business? A psychic should be able to see exactly what steps he should take to make his business a complete success. Now, either Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are business geniuses, or they’re closet psychics. I’m betting on the former.
I can’t believe I’m seriously arguing this. Are we to believe that certain lottery winners are really psychic, but that not a single one of them has come forward after his victory to announce his psychic power, which would be a gigantic boon to scientific research (not to mention humanitarianism)?
The evidence for psychic powers is nill. Lotteries are won at exactly the rate that chance would dictate.
Hmmm… boon to science in this hand, easy riches in that one. Which to choose… I don’t think there’s any reason to think that psychics would be exempt from the lure of fast money, is there?
Consider this:
Jimmy, rather than taking the easy dough, announces his power and becomes the wonder of the scientific community. Does this mean that the folks running the casinos and lotteries won’t have the same alarm bells going off in their head? Heck no. Jimmy won’t be able to get near a craps table and, more importantly, neither will his psychic buddies. I see 3 things resulting from this:
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Jimmy will see in his future a whole bunch of days/weeks/years being examined by research teams and made to predict things at their whim. Good times.
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Since many of the psychics had relied on lotteries etc. for income before Jimmy unveiled his ability, the ranks of employees at the Psychic Friends network will swell rapidly. Service will improve, but ad purchasing will increase well beyond the annoyance threshold of the average television viewer.
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Jimmy will be stalked by a pack of suddenly unemployed psychic lottery pros - quite the dangerous bunch, especially considering they know potentially both the cops’ every move and the exact contents of Jimmy’s worst nightmare.
Jimmy doesn’t need any of that either.
Well, if we make the assumption that there are indeed psychics, we can probably make the further assumption that the percentage of lottery ticket buyers (or whatever) that are psychic averages out to about the same amount over time. That being said… yes, it works at the rate that chance dictates, but if psychics exist, the rate dictated by chance probably takes that into account.
Why doncha ask Miss Cleo? Let the Power of the Tarot answer your question, mon!
Dijon settles back with a beer. This should be good…
Or you could ask Miss Jennifer. My money’s on her.
I know (I think) you’re talking tongue-in-cheek here, but if that were the case, why are there any number of psychics out there clamouring for our money at £30 and hour in their seedy back rooms, or aren’t those the ‘real’ psychics?
And anyway (sorry, tired I know, but someone had to say this) - why do you have to make an appointment to see them? - they should just know you’re coming, right?
Because the lotteries spend billions on sub-contracting the best psychics on countering the lesser psychics trying to win. They make the prediction, and the APST (Anti-Psychic-Swat-Team) rushes in and captures the poor helpless psychic (helpless because APST wear tin-foil hats) and the purchase of the ticket is awarded to some random schmoe. It all balances out.
this is beautiful. I love the one about the doorbell Loaded Dog.
I know this is really morbid, but whenever I see a report about a psychic dying I always wonder if they knew it was coming.
This shows how much you people know. All the so-called “psychics” that write newspaper predictions and all are obvious fakes. But they’re supported by the real psychics. they don’t need to buy lottery tickets – they already control the world because they know everything that’s going to happen. They don’t have doorbells, of course, but it wouldn’t matter if they did – you can’t get near their houses. They know exactly how people would try to approach them, and when. They can’t ever be defeated, because they know who would try to conspire against them, and when, and why. They know alll about this board. In fact, they knew thius message before I even wrote it.
(I’m not paranoid, even though everybody thinks I am.)
trolling Dave?
anyway, everyone knows that lottery games are mere probability waveforms that cannot be predicted until directly observed and the waveform collapses.
and those lottery drums that keep the lottery balls bouncing around are actually Heisenberg generators.
Some things are predictably unpredictable, this is a law of nature & it has every right to be so.
Related questions:
Do psychics ever make outgoing calls of warning?
Wasn’t Florida the one to require all psychics practicing within its borders to be licensed? Licensed by whom?
Well the psychics would know… 
One of the Psychic Hotlines starts out by asking you to say your name 3 times.
I’ve always wanted to call them up and say, “You tell ME what my name is! You’re the psychic!”
If psychics predict the future, that would mean the future has already happened.