[XorNot]

That research was oriented towards making sure it wasn't possible though.

You're saying "of course it isn't" - but how do you know that?

At the time the Soviets had the same sort of projects. So until you're sure it's not possible, the potential capability is an enormous threat if it is.

How they went about that research is where the waste creeps in.

[endominus]

> General Brown: So they started doing psy-research because they thought we were doing psy-research, when in fact we weren't doing psy-research?

> Brigadier General Dean Hopgood: Yes sir. But now that they are doing psy-research, we're gonna have to do psy-research, sir. We can't afford to have the Russian's leading the field in the paranormal.

Source: The Men Who Stare at Goats

[b00ty4breakfast]

Plenty of things we could be wasting money on if the only criteria is "how do you know it's not real?", why stop at killing goats with mind bullets? We could be looking for yetis or Atlantis or lunar nazi spaceships.

It was a giant waste of time and money and, this being the CIA, it likely harmed many people.

[Hikikomori]

Was drugging random Americans with LSD also a valid experiment? Parts of the CIA was just insane back then, maybe still is.

[post-it]

Yeah absolutely. Figuring out which, if any, drugs can be used to control people is extremely valuable for defence, not to mention offence. Same with the fascist Japanese frostbite experiments.

Let me be clear: these were all wrong and unethical, and I would not have approved or conducted them. But if you're a government agency tasked with doing wrong and unethical things in the name of national security, they were all good ideas to at least try.

[Hikikomori]

So you have no idea what they actually did.

[rapnie]

I always wonder when I see one of those hypnosis shows, where someone from the audience makes themselves a docile fool in front of a large crowd, whether they are stooges or it is the real deal. But I wouldn't volunteer to get hypnotised to figure that out, in fear of being the next person who stands imitating a dog in heat on such a stage.

[gigatree]

The few people I’ve asked who’ve been hypnotized said it was true and had no reason to lie or trick me, and it seems true. But if the lens is “we already figured out all biology and physics so we can ignore the possibility of actual hypnosis (putting someone in a trance stage) being possible” then it’s hard to see things that there’s actually immense evidence for (eg the telepathy tapes).

[mrgoldenbrown]

The telepathy tapes don't have immense evidence in their favor, unless they've redone everything recently in a controlled way.

[ungreased0675]

There’s a good book about this called Reality is Plastic. It may give you a new perspective.

[driverdan]

You don't waste resources researching something with no plausibility or explanation as to how it could exist.

[bigiain]

<looks sideways at the entire AI industry and it's AGI claims>