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Ahh philosophy... But if cryptozoologists are unscientific by the Popperian criteria then so is SETI.

• lutusp 13y ago
  > But if cryptozoologists are unscientific by the Popperian criteria then so is SETI. Not at all. Cryptozoologists assume their subject exists, SETI researchers assume it doesn't. Surely you don't think SETI people assume a priori that they will hear a transmission from an intelligent alien species? Or that they have heard such a thing? There's a single report of an anomalous reception, now called the "Wow" signal, that no serious SETI person thinks represents an alien broadcast. By contrast, there are any number of books and articles by cryptozoologists that analyze, but don't doubt, the many reports of Bigfoot, Yeti, Nessie, etc. sightings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal Quote: "Ehman has voiced doubts that the signal was of intelligent extraterrestrial origin: 'We should have seen it again when we looked for it 50 times. Something suggests it was an Earth-sourced signal that simply got reflected off a piece of space debris.'" Spoken like a true scientist.