James Randi Lecture @ Caltech -a word on PHDs

there is a hunger a very strong hunger with us all I'm not just saying audiences that watch the magician know with us all we'd like to have a certain amount of fantasy in our lives be true but it's a very dangerous sort of a temptation to to immediately assume that it must be magic or supernatural or occult or paranormal if we don't have an explanation for it now I can tell you that in my life I've I spent a great deal of my life investigating and observing and carefully noting and making use of psychology I'm not a psychologist not by any means I have know a cadet credentials whatsoever so I come to you today absolutely unencumbered by any responsibilities of that nature there is no dean who will call me on the carpet tomorrow morning and say you shouldn't you see I'm I'm in the in the business of giving opinions from an uninformed point of view except from the point of view of a skeptical person who knows how people's minds work and often don't work it was mentioned previously that you know if everyone in a certain number of years the scientists will consist of every human being on earth and all the animals that donkeys the burros the whole thing and my friend David Alexander here remarked to me in a cruel aside that even today certain parts of certain horses have become scientists and that is is quite true I have met many of them and though they have PhDs I could hardly know it I just come back from that will mention where it's a project that's ongoing at the moment and I have seen that principle at work and I must share with you another thing while in passing I have a theory this is only a theory folks unproven but observations so far tend to support its possible validity with my advanced apologies to PhDs in the room I have a theory about PhDs and the granting of the degree itself I'm money outside the field non-academic so I observe as a curious observer I have many times seeing films of and a couple of occasions actually attended ceremonies where PhDs are creative they are created you know had the PhD itself is earned but then the person who has passed all of the tests and done all the right things in the right way and has been approved doesn't become a PhD until one significant moment in history where a roll of paper usually with a red or a blue ribbon around is pressed into his or her hand at that moment that person becomes a very special class of being known as PhD in various disciplines now I have noted at those ceremonies and perhaps you have noted as well and wondered about it yourself but the man who gives out those rolls of paper wears gloves why a question I frequently asked why would he want to wear gloves is the paper dirty I don't think so is there something about that roll of paper or perhaps the ribbon that he doesn't want to contaminate he doesn't want to touch his skin I'm going to postulate you just an idea just an idea that perhaps there is a secret chemical which has been carefully genetically engineered which is on the surface of that paper so that when the phd up until that moment not a PhD you see receives that roll of paper this chemical is absorbed by the skin and goes into the bloodstream and is conducted directly to the brain this is a very carefully engineered chemical which goes directly please don't laugh this of science goes directly to the speech center of the brain and paralyzes the brain in such a way that two sentences from then on in any given language are no longer possible to be pronounced by that person those two sentences are I don't know and I was wrong I honestly don't know about that however my observations of the situation are that I've never heard any PhD under either one of those sentences I've never heard them say I'd like to marry a lobster either but that doesn't mean they can't say it but those two sentences never seen to pass their lips and of course I'm being exceedingly facetious I have believed me and I mean this now sincerely every respect not only for science but for those who pursue the various disciplines of science it takes a great deal of courage application study sacrifice and in many cases some outrageous attacks upon your integrity and your ability in order to maintain a point of view in science which may or may not be popular I have been with many prominent scientists who have from time to time had to stick their professional necks out their academic necks out and sometimes their necks get pretty badly beat up in the process it's not an easy thing certainly to speak against what is generally accepted well then what is generally accepted I'm afraid due to the media impact on our civilization that a great number of things are easily accepted because they are repeated so often they are repeated endlessly to the public and don't think that it won't get through to the academic community as well any number of times I have spoken to scientists who when I asked them a critical question about some belief in some sort of parapsychological supernatural or occult claim has said I really don't know you know I I hear a good deal about it and professor so-and-so whatever did make a statement on this and the other thing now I am often asked by reporters about opinions by Professor dr. so-and-so and my response is almost always like this I say and if I were an academic my answer to you would have to be perhaps professor brontosaurus based upon the small amount of data that he has presently gathered compared to what should be gathered and to establish the satisfactory statistical picture and an amount of data upon which conclusions could be drawn by one of the various statistical pictures available to him has come upon conclusions which are prematurely expressed on further examination I'll go on and on forever if you wish that's the academics reply when they asked me I simply say in my layman's non academic opinion I think the professor brontosaurus is not rollin with both ours in the water unless sample and it's direct and it is an honest expression of my opinion for more of James Randi and the Educational Foundation make sure you visit randy org

Channel: JamesRandiFoundation

Views: 58,220

Keywords: james randi, jref, magic, phd, skeptic, caltech lecture

Id: O0uF-G88BGc

Length: 7min 26sec (446 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 29 2009