The setup in this case was so well designed and explained that the participants themselves praised it:
James Randi: “The tests that were done, were they adequate to the purpose?”
Participant: “The testing, as far as I was concerned, and I think as far as the rest of the diviners were concerned, was done as fair and as square as could be.”
I first learned about him through some things Martin Gardner wrote, I believe. But I felt like I came to know him a lot better from watching the movie An Honest Liar [0].
He made fighting disinformation something for others to strive for, or at least that was my view of him. "Critical thinking is as to friendly fire isn't"
"Critical thinking is as friendly fire isn't" works.
"Critical thinking is; friendly fire isn't" works better (along the same lines as "Variables don't; constants aren't.")
I feel this one. I'm trying to remember what I read most about him. I watched old episodes of his skeptic TV show, exposing fraud after fraud (who never once repented) and I remember an article about him continuing to trade magic tricks with other magicians.
I wonder if he left behind a secret phrase, like Houdini, so some trusted people could know for sure if it was him communicating with them from beyond the dead, or not. I hope he did.
Effective 9/1/2015 the JREF has made major changes including converting to a grant making foundation and no longer accepting applications for the Million Dollar Prize from the general public.
He was one of the greatest magicians to ever live, but wanted to teach the audience how magic is just deception
He made it his life's work to disprove all people abusing the art of magic to con others into believing something that isn't real... Rest in Piece Randi
In January 2010, I went on a binge of every James Randi video I could find on YouTube. Him debunking psychics, talking about religion and faith, talking about magic, the works. I got so obsessed with him, that I found his website, and sent a very generic "fan email" to him, saying that I respect what he did, and think that he should keep up the good work.
Much to my surprise, he responded with a very quick "thank you!" message. I told my dad about this, and since we lived in Orlando at the time, and Randi was in Fort Lauderdale, he suggested we ask to buy Randi lunch. I figured there was no harm in sending the email, and much to my surprise, Randi agreed!
We drove over to Fort Lauderdale, and he actually spent the whole damn day with us, talking about psychics, doing magic tricks for us, talking about science fiction novels, etc. He was an incredibly awesome guy, and I thought it was beyond cool that he decided to hang out with some dorky fans from the internet.
RIP Randi. You made the world a better place, and you will always be missed.
That's awesome! When I was in my early teens I went through a similar stint and also emailed him with my thoughts, kudos and thanks. Also to my surprise he wrote back with a genuine message and note.
Yeah, he was one of the first "heroes" I've ever reached out to; I thought it was pretty awesome that he was willing to chat with his fans, and never got to a point of feeling "too good" to do something like that.
Since then, I pretty much email everyone on the internet that I have any respect for; I don't know how annoying I am because of that but I think we can thank Randi for giving me the courage to do so.
Yeah, I was definitely lucky, I must have caught him in a good mood or maybe he's just really affable. I was super fortunate to have met him though, a class act all the way. He will always be someone that I admire and respect.
What strikes me about his presentation is the way he expresses skepticism without arrogance or superiority. It's easy for skeptics to sour their message that way ("how could you believe that?") but this mellow avuncular style seems much more effective.
Harold Puthoff, one of the SRI researchers who studied Geller, was in the news somewhat recently. He was involved in that "navy UFO" business. He co-founded the "To The Stars Academy", which produced a History Channel documentary about the videos and the findings of the "Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program" which Senator Harry Reid had spearheaded. Incidentally, he was also involved in the "research" conducted under that program (including some real goofy stuff[1]). It's always sad to learn the government funded pseudoscience, but at least they only wasted $22 million.
I wish I could have heard Randi's thoughts on it all, given he was familiar with some of the people.
My short anecdote. As a kid in 1984 in NJ I went to a high school where an english teacher claimed to have psychic abilities. At first I was enthralled but as I leaned toward scientific thought I grew skeptical. In english class with that teacher we ended up having debates as a project. I chose to debate the non-existence of ESP. James Randi lived in NJ at the time and I wrote or called (I don't remember) him to learn more to debunk these abilities. To my surprise, he invited me (and my father) to visit him at his home. He shared with me his thoughts, taught me an illusion (to use in my debate), and even shared that he had a file on my teacher who had claimed psychic abilities publicly and that he had failed Mr. Randi's tests. Thank you James Randi for your time, patience, education, and encouragement to pursue scientific thought.
What's especially interesting, to me, is that he published his take on thermodynamics without running it past a physicist. I'm not sure what to make of that.
RIP. I remember going to The Amazing Meeting (skeptics convention) years ago and running into a coworker there. It was his second time attending and he spotted James Randi and told me, let's go say hello and that he's super friendly and will chat with anyone. We went over and lo and behold he was super friendly and welcomed me to the con warmly.
I was familiar with his debunking work, but not much beyond that. I watched the documentary about him, An Honest Liar, later on and was impressed with him as a human. Worth checking out to learn more.
Who is the successor to Randi's tenacity, wit, and intellect?
I used to hope Shermer or someone born out of Skeptic would take up the mantle (and I appreciate comedians like Gervais who take a swing at it) but I don't see anyone who hits as hard and succinctly as Randi did. I think it was also his showmanship that made it all work so perfectly.
P&T are a bit too much about being "in your face". Penn just loves to yell to get his point across, where as Randi was tactful and calm. I also had in issue with them grossly misrepresenting several issues, specifically their PETA debacle. They're a bit too scattershot IMHO.
I would vote for yes, Captain Disillusion. See for example videos like [0]. He's great because he follows in the spirit of people like Randi while being at the same time original and appropriate to his era by focusing on dishonest visual effects and editing.
I'm a huge Captain Disillusion fan. For anyone that doesn't know, he does "debunkings" of viral videos featuring something supposedly supernatural.
I don't know if I would categorize hims as the same as Randi, tbh. But if anyone hasn't had the pleasure of seeing his videos, look them up on YouTube! He is one of my favorite content creators, and probably the least well known one. He deserves to be watched by anyone with even a moderate interest in skepticism, visual effects, or science.
There are bad, regular, and good people. Randi was in the smallest group of all, the truly great people. They're the ones whose work benefit us all and who do it because it was something they loved to do. Losing people like him makes our world a little sadder and colder place.
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[ 6.4 ms ] story [ 152 ms ] threadI often think about how brilliantly and carefully the setups were designed, thought through and explained. For example:
Interviewer: “Which pipe was the water running through?”
James Randi: “Well, I'm not supposed to know that! I'm supposed to be doing this in a double-blind fashion. [...]”
Interviewer: “Did he get the right one?”
James Randi: “I can't tell you that.”
Source: https://youtu.be/cqoYrSd94kA?t=1405
The setup in this case was so well designed and explained that the participants themselves praised it:
James Randi: “The tests that were done, were they adequate to the purpose?”
Participant: “The testing, as far as I was concerned, and I think as far as the rest of the diviners were concerned, was done as fair and as square as could be.”
Source: https://youtu.be/cqoYrSd94kA?t=1937
[0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2246565/
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"Critical thinking is as friendly fire isn't" works. "Critical thinking is; friendly fire isn't" works better (along the same lines as "Variables don't; constants aren't.")
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https://web.randi.org/home/jref-status
I guess I was probably as insufferable for them as they were for me, so thank you James Randi for helping me let them all know what's what!
He made it his life's work to disprove all people abusing the art of magic to con others into believing something that isn't real... Rest in Piece Randi
Much to my surprise, he responded with a very quick "thank you!" message. I told my dad about this, and since we lived in Orlando at the time, and Randi was in Fort Lauderdale, he suggested we ask to buy Randi lunch. I figured there was no harm in sending the email, and much to my surprise, Randi agreed!
We drove over to Fort Lauderdale, and he actually spent the whole damn day with us, talking about psychics, doing magic tricks for us, talking about science fiction novels, etc. He was an incredibly awesome guy, and I thought it was beyond cool that he decided to hang out with some dorky fans from the internet.
RIP Randi. You made the world a better place, and you will always be missed.
What a guy.
Since then, I pretty much email everyone on the internet that I have any respect for; I don't know how annoying I am because of that but I think we can thank Randi for giving me the courage to do so.
When i was building a datacenter in manhattan i went to his studio - Hall of Mirrors... or whatever its called...
I need to reach out to him again before such happens and make sure i talk to him before the world loses him.
Thank you for your story.
He is over twenty five years younger than Randi was, and seems to be in excellent shape, so don't write him off yet. :-)
He left Manhattan quite a long time ago and now lives here: https://www.cosm.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTn0t_7pGZo
Previously Uri Geller had passed DIA funded experiment conducted by Stanford Research Institute. The paper of this experiment was published in Nature.
Geller was making millions. He was global celebrity.
Unfortunately it looks like Uri Geller is still out there today and still making lots of money from cons.
Unfortunately Peter too is back out there grifting millions. Last I read he was selling miracle water.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Popoff
I wish I could have heard Randi's thoughts on it all, given he was familiar with some of the people.
[1] https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2019/01/aatip-list/
My short anecdote. As a kid in 1984 in NJ I went to a high school where an english teacher claimed to have psychic abilities. At first I was enthralled but as I leaned toward scientific thought I grew skeptical. In english class with that teacher we ended up having debates as a project. I chose to debate the non-existence of ESP. James Randi lived in NJ at the time and I wrote or called (I don't remember) him to learn more to debunk these abilities. To my surprise, he invited me (and my father) to visit him at his home. He shared with me his thoughts, taught me an illusion (to use in my debate), and even shared that he had a file on my teacher who had claimed psychic abilities publicly and that he had failed Mr. Randi's tests. Thank you James Randi for your time, patience, education, and encouragement to pursue scientific thought.
http://archive.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/805-agw-r...
I was familiar with his debunking work, but not much beyond that. I watched the documentary about him, An Honest Liar, later on and was impressed with him as a human. Worth checking out to learn more.
I used to hope Shermer or someone born out of Skeptic would take up the mantle (and I appreciate comedians like Gervais who take a swing at it) but I don't see anyone who hits as hard and succinctly as Randi did. I think it was also his showmanship that made it all work so perfectly.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dSp_f0f9gE&t=25s
I don't know if I would categorize hims as the same as Randi, tbh. But if anyone hasn't had the pleasure of seeing his videos, look them up on YouTube! He is one of my favorite content creators, and probably the least well known one. He deserves to be watched by anyone with even a moderate interest in skepticism, visual effects, or science.
Please let there be a "TA-DA" ending. :(
May he meet up with Ricky Jay. :)
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/magazine/the-unbelievable...
RIP, James Randi.
Losing a legend and an amazing champion of science.
On top of that I managed to get him to sign a picture we took on my Note (phone with stylus) https://photos.app.goo.gl/yQB7rXH5JcdWT77b9