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DBT and Penn and Teller's histerical "water test"
Jeff Wiseman wrote:
Steven Sullivan wrote:
Jeff Wiseman wrote:
It may very well have been that it was all psychological. On the
other hand, it appears that no effort was made to allow true
comparisons to be accurately made (e.g., all water was taken from
a large, constantly stirred tank that had stabilized at the same
temperature, using the same cup, etc., etc.). Since the human
tongue is very sensitive and can vary from time to time (sorta
like the human ear you know...), isn't it just possible that
there might have been a real detectable difference there mixed in
with all that *assumed* psychological stuff? Could there have
been a small amount of "taste reality" (whatever that is) mixed
in with the so-called power of suggestion?
Could have been. But don't you agree that the power of suggestion
is strong enough to produce false positives?
Yes, I agree completely and I believe that there is a lot of
power there as you've said. I've seen it in my own life where I
could almost tell that I was fooling myself into believing things
that I really wanted to believe a certain way. But being aware
that you are suceptable to this can sometimes help you discern
when you are being fooled.
My point is that when many folks detect differences--especially
if there seems to be any correlation between different people
having similar "detections"--I believe that it is unwise to just
blow it off as a bunch of dumb slobs that have been duped. By
always allowing a small bit of room for possible unknowns,
occasionally significant discoveries can be made. Once upon a
time everyone knew by "common sense" that the world was flat.
Columbus chose to explore what he thought was an exception to
that common sense.
- Jeff
Fair enough but when it comes to wire the Columbus clan has had plenty of time
to make a convincing case that wire isn't wire (after all, Columbus was
verified under far more difficult conditions) with a single, repeatable bias
controlled listening experiment that shows it isn't true.
On the other hand, even "allowing" possibility of the reports it may be unwise
to devote significant resources, time or energy to anecdotal reports that the
proponents (makers, sellers and reviewers) of 'wire sound' haven't bothered to
corroborate with credible evidence, don't you think?
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