A Craftsman and His Tools: The New Technology
1993; Rhine Research Center; Volume: 57; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0022-3387
Autores Tópico(s)History and Developments in Astronomy
ResumoIn the late 1970s I visited Chuck Honorton at the Maimonides Medical Center Dream Laboratory. At the time I was completing my PhD at the University of Edinburgh, and, in a separate project, I had just finished work on a computerized PK test in the form of a game that was loosely based on trading futures contracts on an imaginary commodity market. My principal reason for visiting Chuck was to pay homage to the laboratory and the remaining researchers involved in the ESP-dream work, and to learn more about Chuck's ganzfeld research. When Chuck learned of my interest in psi testing via computer games he took me into another room and sat me in front of a television screen. He explained that I should imagine myself on the starship Enterprise being attacked by Klingons. The Klingons' ships would be cloaked and would not appear on the screen, so I must use my intuition or ESP to locate and destroy them. I no longer recall much else about that session apart from scenes of nifty little spaceships exploding, and the feeling that now we could really make psi testing fun. That was my first visit with Chuck Honorton. I had my last visit with him not long before he left to do his PhD at the University of Edinburgh. I saw him at his apartment because his lab had closed, but he was busy on his computer. We talked about old times and reviewed some observations on his ganzfeld data base. He demonstrated some software tools that he was planning to use when he recreated the autoganzfeld in Edinburgh. Then, with a twinkle in his eye, he said, Wait 'til you see this.... In a few moments Chuck had me sitting in front of his computer screen, now transformed into the cockpit of some starfleet's space fighter, while sound effects--indeed, what seemed like an entire film score--blared from his stereo. Chuck had dropped me into a major intergalactic war while he sat on the sidelines alternately barking commands and commenting on my ineptitude as a starfighter. Eventually, at my pleading, he took the controls and, with a series of quick movements, destroyed the attacking alien spacecraft and won a commendation from whatever organization he was defending. No, this was not a psi test--it was a popular commercial game--but when he finished, he turned to me and expressed just what I was thinking; Now, if we could build a psi test into this ... Chuck Honorton and Technology If it seems strange to focus on such a banal topic as in this commemorative context, let me assure the reader that those who knew Chuck concur that was very much part of his life. He enjoyed it, both in his home and in the lab. His love of was not merely gadget-collecting, however. In the laboratory he viewed in the same way that he viewed any research technique, statistical approach, or any idea from any quarter: Can it improve psi research? It is no accident that the same person who brought the ganzfeld technique and meta-analysis to parapsychology should also be the one responsible for some of the most productive applications of for psi research. Nor was Chuck a mere dilettante when it came to the that he chose to use. He was quick to master the hardware and software of any system that became part of his research program. My own working relationship with computers in research predated Chuck's by about five years, but it was not long before I was seeking his advice in everything from programming languages to statistical packages. At one level or another, has always been part of psi research, and I must confess a certain arbitrariness in deciding to focus on the of digital electronics and its ability to automate research as the new technology of this paper. Yet, there is no doubt that, during the years Chuck's research has flourished, it is this that has grown explosively to the point where it is a pervasive part of everyone's lives. …
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