No. 3 | Skeptical Inquirer (original) (raw)
Feature Article
Looking for the Bright Side of the AI Apocalypse Guy P. Harrison
Rumors of impending artificial intelligence (AI) doom got you down? Take heart, there may be light at the end of this tunnel—and not all of it from the headlight of a self-driving locomotive. No, sorry, you can’t be sure that a precocious bundle of algorithms won’t take your job (Cao 2023; Georgieva 2024). There is …
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Feature Article
Analyzing Conspiracies through Folklore, Epidemiology, and Artificial Intelligence Benjamin Radford
Digital disinformation is becoming a widely recognized threat—especially to public health—with unprecedented amounts of misinformation available online. In his first advisory, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy (2021) issued a stark warning that “Health misinformation is a serious threat to public health … we can and must confront it together.” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus (2020) concurred: …
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Feature Article
Alternative Therapies for Menstrual Pain Dr. Jen Gunter
Editor’s note: This article is a slightly revised excerpt from Dr. Jen Gunter’s new book, Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation. While this excerpt focuses on alternative therapies, the rest of the book highlights evidence-based information. Thank you to Dr. Gunter and Citadel Press for granting permission. Pain, as defined by the International …
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Feature Article
True Haunting, or Not? Autumn Sword, Kenny Biddle
In 1971, years before both the bestselling novel and film The Amityville Horror thrilled the public with one of the most well-known “true stories” of a haunted house, NBC News aired a short, six-minute clip documenting the exorcism of the allegedly haunted Chicago couple Edwin and Marsha Becker. Decades later, Edwin Becker self-published an account …
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From the Editor
Paranormal Investigation, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future Stephen Hupp
Earlier this year, my wife, Farrah, and I joined the Midwest Paranormal Investigators Consortium in the attic of the second-oldest house in Edwardsville. This being my first paranormal investigation, I decided to check my skepticism at the door. I wasn’t surprised by any of the gadgets used, but I was surprised by the sheer number …
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News & Comment
The FCC Outlaws AI-Voiced Robocalls Julia Lavarnway
The weekend ahead of the January 23, 2024, primary election, thousands of New Hampshire voters received a call from someone who sounded like a very well-known political leader. The voice urged those who answered not to vote in the primary, falsely telling them that doing so would preclude them from voting in the November general …
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News & Comment
Fake Rescue Requests via Social Media during the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake Tomoyasu Tobari
On January 1, 2024, at 4:10 p.m. local time, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the Noto region of Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture. On January 11, the Emergency Disaster Control Headquarters reported that 222 people had been killed and 238 were seriously injured by the resulting tsunami, landslides, and collapsed houses. Social media was effectively utilized in …
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News & Comment
CSI Fellow Michael Mann Awarded $1 Million in Defamation Case John Cook
In a significant victory for science, climate scientist Michael Mann was successful in his defamation lawsuit against bloggers Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn. A six-person District of Columbia jury unanimously awarded $1 million in punitive damages to Mann for defamatory blog posts published in 2012 by Simberg on the Competitive Enterprise Institute website and by …
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News & Comment
Miracle of the Weeping Mary in Mexico Explained Benjamin Radford
In a news category breezily labeled “Weird but True,” the venerable New York Post was among many media outlets that in November 2023 shared sensational headlines about a miraculous weeping Virgin Mary statue. The Post reported that “Churchgoers in Mexico claimed to have witnessed a miracle after spotting a statue of the Virgin Mary that …
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News & Comment
News Bites: From Neuralink to Netflix’s 3 Body Problem Stephen Hupp
Neuralink Implant. On January 29, Elon Musk, cofounder of Neuralink, shared the news that the first Neuralink implant has been placed inside a human’s skull with promising results. The stated goal is to give recipients the ability to control a computer with their brain. Musk has been criticized for lack of transparency and for releasing …
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Announcement
Amardeo Sarma Named CSI Representative in Europe
The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) has named Amardeo Sarma as the CSI Representative in Europe. Sarma is already a member of CSI’s Executive Council and a CSI fellow. “Amardeo has been active for many years within the skeptical community,” said Barry Karr, CSI’s executive director. “He attended a CSI(COP) conference way back in 1987, and I …
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Announcement
Critical Thinking Conference in Argentina: An Antidote against Current Scams
A series of free presentations on critical thinking open to the public will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The role of artificial intelligence, flat-earth theories, UFOs, anti-vaccine arguments, alternative medicine, and other topics will be part of the event held on May 18 and 19 at the Argentine Scientific Society located at 1145 Santa …
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Special Report
New Contenders for the Investigations Group’s $500,000 Paranormal Challenge in 2023 Jim Underdown
In the world of sports, having zero successes over the course of an entire year would be the mark of abject failure. You’d see coaching changes, player replacements, and a tidal wave of criticism. A retailer who sold no products would be out of business. A plumber who made no successful repairs or installations, a …
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Special Report
Advocacy for Alleged Witches in Africa: 2023 Update Leo Igwe
I founded Advocacy for Alleged Witches (AfAW) to defend the rights and dignity of alleged witches and end all forms of human rights abuses linked to witchcraft allegations in Africa. Our small but effective organization works on local, regional, and national levels to not only raise awareness of the problem of witchcraft persecution and magical …
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Special Report
Witchcraft-Based Violence and Persecution in Malawi Wonderful Mkhutche
Though many in the West often think of witchcraft belief and witch trials as relics of the distant past, they remain common and dangerous in many areas of the world to this day. An April 2022 survey by Afrobarometer (a pan-African, nonpartisan survey research network) found that over 74 percent of Malawians believe in the …
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White Paper
White Paper from the Congressional Freethought Caucus—Speaker Johnson: Christian Nationalism in the Speaker’s Office? Congressional Freethought Caucus
Editors note: The Congressional Freethought Caucus shared this White Paper with others in Congress in December 2023 and Skeptical Inquirer in January 2024. The paper involves threats to the separation of church and state in America. Before reading, you are encouraged to first read Wonderful Mkhutche’s article in this issue on witchcraft persecution in Malawi. …
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Investigative Files
The Horrific ‘Black Dahlia’ Murder: Killer’s Identity Revealed at Last Joe Nickell
One of the most famously shocking murder cases of all time came to light on the morning of January 15, 1947, when the naked and mutilated body of twenty-two-year-old Elizabeth “Beth” Short (originally from a Boston, Massachusetts, suburb) was found lying in a vacant lot near 39th Street and Norton Avenue in Los Angeles, California. …
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Notes on a Strange World
Believe It or Die! Massimo Polidoro
Certain beliefs that seem absurd and nonsensical to many of us, especially because they seem to go against all evidence, start to make sense when we realize that for each member of the human species, it is often more important to be seen as a good member of its group than it is to recognize …
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The Philosopher’s Corner
Pseudoscience and Local Scientific Epistemology Massimo Pigliucci
Human beings are funny creatures. On the one hand, we have figured out how to travel to the moon and send spacecrafts outside the solar system. On the other hand, many of us still believe in astrology. What’s going on here? This is how a recent paper on the infamous “demarcation problem,” how to separate …
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Behavior & Belief
New Research Suggests Almost Everybody Is Superstitious Stuart Vyse
Polls and surveys have found that about a quarter of Americans are superstitious (e.g., Moore 2000; Orth 2022). At the high end of the scale, there have occasionally been surveys showing somewhere around half of respondents were at least a little superstitious (60 Minutes/Vanity Fair: Superstition 2015). According to new research—some published and some yet …
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The Practical Skeptic
Practical AI for Skeptics Mick West
I have long been fascinated by the potential for artificial intelligence (AI). Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the topic was largely theoretical and philosophical. Could AI achieve “consciousness?” Would it ever be able to replicate the human experience fully? What will we use it for? Those questions, academic at the time, are now deeply …
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The Time Warp: Skepticism Revisited—from the Future
Astrology: Beast of No Burden Craig A. Foster
Welcome aboard, friends! In “The Time Warp,” we aren’t limited to present-day examinations. We use Skeptical Inquirer’s rich history to examine skepticism—from the future. On this voyage, we travel to Fall 1978 and the fifth issue of The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol 3, no. 1. Some historical debris from the time: John Carpenter introduced the public …
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Skeptical Inquiree
Default Belief: Wise or Gullible? Benjamin Radford
Q: Why do people automatically believe the first thing that they hear? Are they stupid or gullible? —T. Anderson A: One perpetual skeptical lament is that so many people tend to believe what they’re told, seemingly with little regard for factual basis or counterarguments. What else, we ask, could explain such widespread belief in …
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Review
Weird Shit Explained James E. Alcock
The Science of Weird Shit: Why Our Minds Conjure the Paranormal by Chris French. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2024. ISBN: 9780262048361. 424 pp. Hardcover, $32.95. From Ghoulies and Ghosties, And long-leggedy Beasties, And things that go bump in the Night, Good Lord deliver us. —Traditional Scottish Prayer Experience is a great teacher; it guides our behavior, …
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Review
Disney’s Wish: A Century of Wishing on Stars Carli Yingling
Wish. Directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn. Starring Ariana DuBose and Chris Pine. Disney Studios, 2023. Last October marked Disney’s hundredth year. As part of the anniversary celebration, the studio leaned into the idea of wishing upon a star, which first appeared in their second theatrical animated feature film, Pinocchio (1940). The hit song …
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Fun & Games
Fun & Games – Vol. 48, No. 3 Stephen Hupp
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Letters
Letters to the Editor – Vol. 48, No. 3
Bigfoot I just finished reading Ben Radford’s article “Is Bigfoot Dead?” in the January/February 2024 Skeptical Inquirer. While I typically find Bigfoot hunting and hunters relatively uninteresting (Where are all the bodies/bones?), Radford’s article is exceptionally well-written and thoroughly researched. I have often heard Bigfoot enthusiasts reference ancient Native American legends about something “big, dark, …
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