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Yes. Everyone adjacent to this field has known for a long time that it's just a bunch of charlatans and liars looking to prey on older people and people with di

Yes. Everyone adjacent to this field has known for a long time that it's just a bunch of charlatans and liars looking to prey on older people and people with disabilities. There are so many startups (like say https://www.neurotrackerx.com/ https://www.neurotrackerx.com/) devoted to taking people's money based on nonsense "science". Where even if the science was true, the effect sizes are so small as to be meaningless.

torginus 4y ago
I just wonder how do you get so many prestigious universities, companies, medical institution etc. to endorse your product if it basically doesn't work?
- mjburgess 4y ago
  There's no real downside. They're part of the scam. I think this largely applies to AI (et al.) too. The universities are the enables of a system of "commercialisable pseudoscience", and are in bed with all those companies profiting from it
  - torginus 4y ago
    Does that mean that I can go to UC Berkeley (it's on the website) with a sufficiently big bag of bills, and they'll endorse my miracle ointment that supposedly cures cancer?
    - gwd 4y ago
      Well, any individual person can conclusively tell if they died of cancer. It's not so easy to conclusively for an individual to tell if their brain is getting generally "fitter", or if they're only getting better at the specific "exercises" they're doing. IOW, if you want to show up with a big bag of bills and expect support, you need something much less falsifiable.
- pmontra 4y ago
  If there are customers, they sell the product. Most of the stuff we buy everyday isn't as good as in the ads or it does us any good at all (maybe it damages us.)
- light_hue_1 4y ago
  Universities don't endorse products. Faculty members do. And they do so in exchange for advisor spots which come with monthly cheques. Companies endorse things only when their bottom line increases. Agencies give grants, they don't endorse anything. Funding agencies don't want to fall behind, they want to see if technology works, it's perfectly normal for them to hand out small amounts of money and run trials. That's not an endorsement, even though companies treat it that way. There are countless totems and lucky charms that people use to "increase their performance" from blowing on dice to your favorite rabbit's foot. There is just as much evidence for blowing on dice helping as for neurotracker helping.

torginus 4y ago

I just wonder how do you get so many prestigious universities, companies, medical institution etc. to endorse your product if it basically doesn't work?

mjburgess 4y ago
There's no real downside. They're part of the scam. I think this largely applies to AI (et al.) too. The universities are the enables of a system of "commercialisable pseudoscience", and are in bed with all those companies profiting from it
- torginus 4y ago
  Does that mean that I can go to UC Berkeley (it's on the website) with a sufficiently big bag of bills, and they'll endorse my miracle ointment that supposedly cures cancer?
  - gwd 4y ago
    Well, any individual person can conclusively tell if they died of cancer. It's not so easy to conclusively for an individual to tell if their brain is getting generally "fitter", or if they're only getting better at the specific "exercises" they're doing. IOW, if you want to show up with a big bag of bills and expect support, you need something much less falsifiable.
pmontra 4y ago
If there are customers, they sell the product. Most of the stuff we buy everyday isn't as good as in the ads or it does us any good at all (maybe it damages us.)
light_hue_1 4y ago
Universities don't endorse products. Faculty members do. And they do so in exchange for advisor spots which come with monthly cheques. Companies endorse things only when their bottom line increases. Agencies give grants, they don't endorse anything. Funding agencies don't want to fall behind, they want to see if technology works, it's perfectly normal for them to hand out small amounts of money and run trials. That's not an endorsement, even though companies treat it that way. There are countless totems and lucky charms that people use to "increase their performance" from blowing on dice to your favorite rabbit's foot. There is just as much evidence for blowing on dice helping as for neurotracker helping.