March 05, 2012

Skeptic Check: Prog-Not-Stication

Listen Later

52 minutes

The future is no mystery … according to psychics who say they have special access to tomorrow’s events. For example, adherents to the Mayan doomsday prophecy warn that when 2012 ends, so will the world.

Discover what’s behind claims of prognostication, and why – if it really works – no one is making a killing in Las Vegas.

Also, could science divine the future? Programmers with the Living Earth Simulator say that with sufficient data, their billion-dollar computer project can predict world events.

It’s Skeptic Check… but don’t take our word for it!

Guests:

Phil Plait - Skeptic and keeper of Discover Magazine’s blog, badastronomy.com

Christopher French - Psychologist, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London

Guy Harrison - Writer and business owner, author of 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True

Alessandro Vespignani - Physicist, Northeastern University

Ken Caldeira - Climate scientist in the Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology, Stanford University

Sue Wilhite - Master Tarot card reader at East

West Bookstore in Mountain View, California

Descripción en español

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Big Picture Science

By Big Picture Science

4.5

912912 ratings

March 05, 2012

Skeptic Check: Prog-Not-Stication

Listen Later

52 minutes

The future is no mystery … according to psychics who say they have special access to tomorrow’s events. For example, adherents to the Mayan doomsday prophecy warn that when 2012 ends, so will the world.

Discover what’s behind claims of prognostication, and why – if it really works – no one is making a killing in Las Vegas.

Also, could science divine the future? Programmers with the Living Earth Simulator say that with sufficient data, their billion-dollar computer project can predict world events.

It’s Skeptic Check… but don’t take our word for it!

Guests:

Phil Plait - Skeptic and keeper of Discover Magazine’s blog, badastronomy.com

Christopher French - Psychologist, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London

Guy Harrison - Writer and business owner, author of 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True

Alessandro Vespignani - Physicist, Northeastern University

Ken Caldeira - Climate scientist in the Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology, Stanford University

Sue Wilhite - Master Tarot card reader at East

West Bookstore in Mountain View, California

Descripción en español

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

...more

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