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Which paranormal ability might be real in the future?

The Atheist

The Grammar Tyrant
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I've always loved novels where paranormal abilities exist and I've often wondered if humans might one day evolve an ability which is currently considered paranormal.

If that were ever to happen, which one do you think it would be?
 
OK, so like this some kinda trap for closet woos where you say maybe PK or something like that and suddenly guys in jumpsuits jump through your windows and start beating you with sticks, right?:D

Umm, I can only say somewhat vaguely that while I consider any John Edward talking to the dead type a complete ass I do suspect that there may well be processes of the mind in relation to external elements that we may not fully understand or recognize. I'm sort of thinking of identifying the human brain being able to an extent to send and receive signals of some nature. I'm not thinking of let's chuck our cell phones telepathy but something that could be identified and possibly utilized in some manner.

Vague enough? OK, bring on the sticks.:D
 
What paranormal ability might be real in the future? Certainly not one that would violate the laws of physics. However, would it be paranormal to have people like the mentats in Frank Herbert's Dune series? People that can turn their brains into number crunching computers?

In any case, I needed to start posting so that people would know that AZAtheist is not the same as The Atheist.
 
The ability to see infrared would open lots of interesting possibilities. I can't see how to sell it and make it look paranormal, but that's just an argument from personal incredulity.
 
I wonder whether telepathy might be a starter.

I've known identical twins who shared an ability which verged on telepathic. Certainly, there are reasons why it's not paranormal, but I wonder whether a time in the future could come when we evolve the ability. Close siblings and twins maybe.

Not saying it's likely, just the least fantastic idea of paranormality I could come up with.
 
OK, so like this some kinda trap for closet woos where you say maybe PK or something like that and suddenly guys in jumpsuits jump through your windows and start beating you with sticks, right?:D

Umm, I can only say somewhat vaguely that while I consider any John Edward talking to the dead type a complete ass I do suspect that there may well be processes of the mind in relation to external elements that we may not fully understand or recognize. I'm sort of thinking of identifying the human brain being able to an extent to send and receive signals of some nature. I'm not thinking of let's chuck our cell phones telepathy but something that could be identified and possibly utilized in some manner.

Vague enough? OK, bring on the sticks.:D
Safe from the sticks, that's exactly the sort of thing I mean.
 
What paranormal ability might be real in the future? Certainly not one that would violate the laws of physics. However, would it be paranormal to have people like the mentats in Frank Herbert's Dune series? People that can turn their brains into number crunching computers?
I know a bloke like this. I hadn't realised it until I saw him on tv doing stuff faster than I could type it into a computer. He was absolutely lacking in any personal skills, was a fundamental christian, had an IQ of about 300 and looked like a nerd drawn by Mad magazine, but man, could he count!
In any case, I needed to start posting so that people would know that AZAtheist is not the same as The Atheist.
There'd be little chance of getting mixed up with me!
 
I suspect technology will bring us something akin to telepathy in the near future.

I think I would sign up for enhanced vision and hearing.
 
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I wonder whether telepathy might be a starter.

I've known identical twins who shared an ability which verged on telepathic. Certainly, there are reasons why it's not paranormal, but I wonder whether a time in the future could come when we evolve the ability. Close siblings and twins maybe.

Not saying it's likely, just the least fantastic idea of paranormality I could come up with.

I don't see that it's any more likely than any other wishful-woo. Its future development would surely require some existing structure in the brain, or some mechanism that we could begin to spot in the present day. Otherwise, you might just as well speculate on the development of human wings.
 
An ability to sense electric / magnetic fields seems at least possible in principle, as we know of some creatures which have evolved a version.
 
I've always loved novels where paranormal abilities exist and I've often wondered if humans might one day evolve an ability which is currently considered paranormal.

If that were ever to happen, which one do you think it would be?

I wonder whether telepathy might be a starter.
I think that's somewhat unlikely, since there is no indication that any other species has evolved telepathy over the last few billion years. Telepathy (or any other form of ESP) would be an enormous advantage, even if it was at first present in only a very vague and hit-and-miss form. For example, a prey animal that occasionally got "feelings" about the location of predators (or a predator which sometimes "knew" where its prey was going to show up) would have an advantage over other animals that didn't. Once such an ability existed, animals in which it worked more reliably would have a distinct advantage over those in which it only worked "capriciously". There would be enormous selective pressure for the evolution of consistently reliable ESP. And lets face it, in the face of predators with ESP, any prey animal without it is going to be in trouble; the same goes for predators without ESP trying to catch telepathic prey. Can you imagine, for example, lions trying to ambush gazelles if the gazelles knew where the lions were?

If ESP had ever evolved, we should see it working reliably pretty much everywhere.
 
I think the accuracy of weather prediction today would have looked almost paranormal a few decades ago. So I don’t think it’s a stretch to imagine that some future ability to predict nonlinear events would look almost paranormal to us today.
 
I don't know if it even counts as paranormal; more of a physics problem really, I don't rule out time travel.

And putting in my two cents for telepathy as well.
 
An ability to sense electric / magnetic fields seems at least possible in principle, as we know of some creatures which have evolved a version.

For this, and other abilities like telepathy, to develop in a large number of people wouldn't there have to be a survival advantage versus the general population? This could well be me completely misunderstanding the whole evolution/natural selection setup.

I can see how a weak form of telepathy might give some advantage in society, but when we live in a world where even someone like me who can often fail to pick up on subtle body language cues can still do well would it be enough of an advantage that it doesn't disappear soon after it appears?
 
For this, and other abilities like telepathy, to develop in a large number of people wouldn't there have to be a survival advantage versus the general population? This could well be me completely misunderstanding the whole evolution/natural selection setup.

I can see how a weak form of telepathy might give some advantage in society, but when we live in a world where even someone like me who can often fail to pick up on subtle body language cues can still do well would it be enough of an advantage that it doesn't disappear soon after it appears?
On the other hand, it could be a complete mutation which survives. Chance lends a hand every now and then.
 
I think that's somewhat unlikely, since there is no indication that any other species has evolved telepathy over the last few billion years. Telepathy (or any other form of ESP) would be an enormous advantage, even if it was at first present in only a very vague and hit-and-miss form. For example, a prey animal that occasionally got "feelings" about the location of predators (or a predator which sometimes "knew" where its prey was going to show up) would have an advantage over other animals that didn't. Once such an ability existed, animals in which it worked more reliably would have a distinct advantage over those in which it only worked "capriciously". There would be enormous selective pressure for the evolution of consistently reliable ESP. And lets face it, in the face of predators with ESP, any prey animal without it is going to be in trouble; the same goes for predators without ESP trying to catch telepathic prey. Can you imagine, for example, lions trying to ambush gazelles if the gazelles knew where the lions were?

If ESP had ever evolved, we should see it working reliably pretty much everywhere.
Sure, I have no doubts that it hasn't evolved so far, but you seem to be taking a short-term view of a long-term process. Evolution could take tens of thousands of years.

I figure that if telepathy were to evolve, language would be a pre-requisite, so the survival usage of it wouldn't apply.
 
I think that's somewhat unlikely, since there is no indication that any other species has evolved telepathy over the last few billion years...

If ESP had ever evolved, we should see it working reliably pretty much everywhere.

I agree in so far that I can't see ESP as something that would die out. The hosts might but the ability wouldn't. However, ESP could conceivably be an emerging trait.

That wouldn't explain how it might work, of course.

(edit: I wasn't deliberately copying The Atheist's post, I just didn't read the thread fully)
 

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