Sean M Carroll (not be confused with the developmental biologist Sean B Carroll also a committed skeptic) is a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, who does research on theoretical aspects of dark matter and dark energy as well as extra dimensions and other theoretical topics. He has an active blogger and his blog post carries the old materialist slogan, “In truth, only atoms and the void”. Although he has no training in psychology he is confident that physics can explain consciousness, and that
“Parapsychology is not science. It’s pseudoscience. From a completely blank slate perspective, one could certainly pose scientific questions about whether the human mind can tell the future or read minds or move objects around without touching them. The thing is, we know the answer: No. The possibilities have been investigated and found wanting; more straightforwardly, they would inviolate the known laws of physics.”
From his blog Preposterous universe
Carroll was challenged by the writer Damien Broderick to look at the best evidence for psi phenomena and evaluate them. He replied:
“Direct investigations into parapsychology are not completely irrelevant; however, given the fact that the phenomena are incompatible with laws of physics that have been tested to exquisite precision in an enormous variety of circumstances, I think their relevance is pretty darn miniscule….I gave an argument …that telekinesis is incompatible with what we know about how nature works. Given that, I’m not going to waste my time looking into claims to the contrary.”
Evidence For Psi: 13 Empirical Research Reports, edited Damien Broderick and Ben Goertzel, McFarland and Co, Jefferson, NC, 2015, p.26
Carroll is a one of many dogmatic skeptics whose commitment to the philosophy of materialism renders studying actual scientific evidence pointless. Website:
Photo credit: By Seanmcarroll (Own work) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
