spoon bending

The Devil Inside said:
3 minutes arent required, but that is a reasonable time limit i think.
i think i should sit, facing away from the cards, or perhaps in another room, with a person (impartial) accompanying both of us to alert as to when each card has been chosen by you.
sound fair?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update and I appreciate the ideas on the experiment. Before
moving on, I am curious to know why less than 3 minutes per card is
unreasonable and yet 3 minutes is not necessary. I would think we would
want to eliminate unnecessary time investment and maybe I am not
understanding the 'ability'. How long does the process of knowing take (i.e.
at what relative point from when a card being presented does the 'knowing'
come)?
 
less than three minutes isnt unreasonable. it is the maximum time allowed. i usually average about 10 seconds per card.
i just want to make sure to get accurate results. :)

just so you know, i have three weeks before my move to belgium. i doubt you want to pay for the airfare from there. it is EXPENSIVE.
 
The Devil Inside said:
less than three minutes isnt unreasonable. it is the maximum time allowed. i usually average about 10 seconds per card.
i just want to make sure to get accurate results. :)

just so you know, i have three weeks before my move to belgium. i doubt you want to pay for the airfare from there. it is EXPENSIVE.
Click to expand...

Thanks Devil,

I understand, it's a 3 minute upper limit and on average 10 seconds of it is
used per card. We're are you geographically located right now? I am in
California (U.S.).
 
Close to the East Coast (potentially a 4-hour travel time each way). I must
admit that the 70% accuracy claim has peaked my interest and I would like
to proceed. Let's see if we can arrive at an agreement on a high-level
experiment proposal; after which, we can focus on some of the nitty gritty details.

HIGH LEVEL PROPOSAL 1:
* I will cover the airfare and pick you up from / return you to the airport.
* We'll hold the experiment in a business conference room in MountainView
CA. It's a pretty comfortable place.
* We'll repeat the experiment up to 3 times. If any one experiment fails
then all further experimentation should cease.
* If the experiment succeeds then I will buy you a meal (I know alot
of great places in the area). If the experiment fails, I feel there should
be an ante on the table (ex. Reimbursment of the airfare).
* The results of the experiment will be posted on sciforums.

HIGH LEVEL PROPOSAL 2:
* I will pick you up from / return you to the airport.
* We'll hold the experiment in a business conference room in MountainView
CA. It's a pretty comfortable place.
* We'll repeat the experiment up to 3 times. If any one experiment fails
then all further experimentation should cease.
* If the experiment succeeds then I will buy you a meal, reimburse
your airfare (regardless of class of travel) + any hotel costs incured if
staying in town (up to 3 days and no more than $200 a day at a hotel),
and give you a bonus of $300 for a successful experiment.
* The results of the experiment will be posted on sciforums.

Let me know what you think.
 
Last edited:
i am not interested in any kind of bonus. as i stated before, i do not accept money for this kind of thing.
the rest of the terms are agreeable, but i thought of something else:
i will be in the USA in september. perhaps i could come to california (you wouldnt have to pay for the airfare) during that time. it would definitely make this easier on my hectic schedule to perform this experiment then.

i also think we should have a "control" experiment with someone that has no known ability to succeed at the sort of experiment this is. that way, we can come up with realistic figures to compare my statistics to. run the control experiment 10 times, and then run it with me 10 times, regardless of failure or success (i wont know anyhow, right?).

how does that sound?
 
The Devil Inside said:
i am not interested in any kind of bonus. as i stated before, i do not accept money for this kind of thing.
the rest of the terms are agreeable, but i thought of something else:
i will be in the USA in september. perhaps i could come to california (you wouldnt have to pay for the airfare) during that time. it would definitely make this easier on my hectic schedule to perform this experiment then.

i also think we should have a "control" experiment with someone that has no known ability to succeed at the sort of experiment this is. that way, we can come up with realistic figures to compare my statistics to. run the control experiment 10 times, and then run it with me 10 times, regardless of failure or success (i wont know anyhow, right?).

how does that sound?
Click to expand...

Hi Devil,

Thats cool. I just wanted to offer it up in case there was a change of mind.
I checked the ol' Calendar and September would work out for me just fine.
Let me know what date you would like to do this on.

I appreciate the suggestion of a control experiment. I think if we were testing
a hypothesis then a control experiment would be the way to go. In our case
we're testing a 'claim of fact'. I will assert that if the results are as expected
then we'll move forward with a control experiment.

Thanks!
 
The Devil Inside said:
indeed. sounds good to me.
september 11-26 i will be in the usa.
whenever it is convenient to you.
Click to expand...

Excellent! Shall we do it Sunday 11-27 then? It would give you a chance to
settle in a little. I'd be more than happy to pick you up and do the driving
as well.

I have a video camera that we can use as an impartial observer to each
experiment and we can review the results together of course.

If this all sounds good then the next step is to swap some contact info.

Thanks.
 
I would like to see the vid of this Crunchy. Are you going to post it in all its failing glory?
 
slotty said:
I would like to see the vid of this Crunchy. Are you going to post it in all its failing glory?
Click to expand...

I'll see what I can do to get an MPEG/AVI available Slotty.
 
Crunchy Cat said:
I'll see what I can do to get an MPEG/AVI available Slotty.
Click to expand...

Cheers Crunchy. I predict with 100% certainty that you will win the experiment-i'm special, i have a gift for this sort of thing :D
 
this isnt about "winning", slotty. it is about knowledge. if you hadnt noticed, i asked him not to compensate me in any way other than travel expenses.

if crunchy cat saw it as a "win/lose" situation, i would have nothing to do with it. it is his/her impartiality that is the motivating factor for me. i have demonstrated for folks before, in private settings, and it always turned out badly when someone wanted to "win".

skepticism does not bother me. competitiveness does.
 
I'm competitive. Hes impartial. I still know what the result will be.
 
I knew you were going to say that slotty. I must be psychic. (heh)

Will the deck contain jokers? Not that it matters. So getting roughly 36 out of 52 cards right 3 times in a row is quite a feat. Why not do that in front of randi and don't take the million $ reward if you don't want to. Just ask that he publishes the result in the media. Then no one will think that there was any hanky panky involved. Er, not that I am implying any here.
 
well, mario.......
to be perfectly honest, i am opposed to the results (positive or negative) being published even on THIS site. but, i am not someone who thinks that i can tell others what to do.

i am not interested in any kind of recognition on a public scale, nor am i interested in money. i am doing this with crunchy cat because i want to test MYSELF in a (as much as can be done) scientific environment.
you know?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top