RANDY JAMES가 오디오 케이블 미신에 백만불을 걸었다!
신호의 왜곡, 손실을 없애기위해 발달된 디지털 시대에도 동일한 명세를 가지는 제품들이 브랜드, 가격(!)에 따라 측정할 수 없는(!) 큰 차이를 보인다는 믿음이다.
많은 오디오 애호가 사이에서 당연히 받아들여지는 접속 단자 재질에 따른 엄청난 음질의 차이라던가 케이블, 재생매체(동일한 디지털 음원인데 본래의 CD보다 black 공시디에 복제한 것이 음질이 더 낫다는 둥)에 따라 엄청난 음질(전문가들의 평가-느낌을 말한다) 차이가 난다는 식이다.
유리 갤러같은 사이비 초자연 현상을 까발리기 위해 실제 초자연 현상을 임을 증명하는 자에게 백만불의 상금을 걸어놓고 있는 James Randy가 이번엔 이 디지털 미신을 까발리기로 했다.
고해상도 AV신호의 전달을 위한 HDMI 규격에 따라 만들어진 케이블은 규격에 맞다면 동일한 신호를 전달할 텐데, 무려 7250불짜리 케이블을 만들어 파는 업체가 있단다.
게다가 더 가관인것은 오디오 전문가라는 사람이 리뷰에서 "지금껏 들어본 어떤 케이블보다 나은 음질을 보여준다. 이걸 통해 음악을 재생하면 발장단을 맞춰야 하는 장면에서 실제 일어나서 춤을 추고 싶은 욕구을 느끼게 만든다"는 식으로 띄워 줬다는 점이다.
아마 이에 꼭지 돌아서 위에 말한 초자연 현상 증명에 내건 백만불을 여기에도 적용한단다.
만약 이 케이블과 일반 규격 케이블의 차이를 증명한다면 백만불을 주겠다고 한다.
당연히 모든 사이비 과학이 그렇듯이 그의 증명 조건을 만족할만한 증거 제시는 불가능하리라 믿어진다.
http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-09/092807reply.html#i4
MORE CABLE NONSENSE
Several readers alerted us to yet another hilarious and preposterous situation in the “audiophile” business, which we have referred to frequently simply because if some of their claims were true, they would be paranormal. Here’s another such.
Monster Cable – a company that turns out a fine line of products, but not untinged with the woo-woo flavor, sells a set of $80 HDMI [High Definition Multimedia Interface] cables, designed to handle new signals brought about by the advent of High Definition TV. I thought that was a heavy price to be asking – no, I didn’t invest! – but now we see that the Pear Cable company is advertising a pair of 12-foot “Anjou” audio cables for $7,250; that’s $302 a foot! And, as expected, “experts” were approached for their opinions on the performance of these wonders. Excerpts:
…way better than anything I have heard…Simply put these are very danceable cables. Music playing through them results in the proverbial foot-tapping scene with the need or desire to get up and move. Great swing and pace – these cables smack that right on the nose big time.
…simply way better than anything I have heard prior to their audition.
Well, we at the JREF are willing to be shown that these “no-compromise” cables perform better than, say, the equivalent Monster cables. While Pear rattles on about “capacitance,” “inductance,” “skin effect,” “mechanical integrity” and “radio frequency interface,” – all real qualities and concerns, and adored by the hi-fi nut-cases – we naively believe that a product should be judged by its actual performance, not by qualities that can only be perceived by attentive dogs or by hi-tech instrumentation. That said, we offer the JREF million-dollar prize to – for example – Dave Clark, Editor of the audio review publication Positive Feedback Online, who provided the above rave review. If Mr. Clark should choose to apply for the prize, he would be unlike John Atkinson of Stereophile Magazine – see randi.org/jr/121004science.html#11 – who made great noises about being ready to snap up the million, then got distracted by things such as gullible readers who accepted his claimed abilities, and backed out. But we’ll see…
또한, 그가 운영하는 James Randy 교육 재단(JREF)에서는 SWIFT라는 뉴스를 편집하고 있다.
여기엔 비과학적인 미신으로 사람을 현혹시키는 각종 현상들을 다룬다.
재미있는 것은 Friends of the James Randi Educational Foundation: 라는 제휴 싸이트 목록이다.
유전학자로 신은 인간이 만들어낸 기만일 뿐이라고 주장하면서 무신론을 설파하는 리처드 도킨스의 http://richarddawkinsfoundation.org/ , 각종 비과학에 대한 과학적 분석을 보여주는 http://www.skeptic.com/, 미신에 현혹되기 쉬운 인간 심리의 속성을 분석하는 심리학자인 리처드 와이즈먼(이름이 그럴듯 한걸? 현명한 자 - wise man-라..)의 홈페이지인 http://www.richardwiseman.com/ 등이다.
온갖 super natural 들의 해방구인 한국에 대해서도 많은 글을 발견할 수 있다.
우리나라의 TV 요지경 류의 프로그램에 많은 출연한 사람이다보니 자신이 다녀온 경험도 있고, 한국인들의 초자연현상에 대한 맹신이 이해가 안되는 과학적인(?) 서양 사람들의 고발에 대한 답변도 많다.
주로 황당한 뇌과학, 기수련 등의 이야기가 대부분인데 이들은 서구에서 그럴듯하게 꾸며져서 TV에 나온다거나 요가수련처럼 대도시 지역에 수련원을 차리고 돈을 많이 벌어서 서구인들에게 많이 알려진 이야기이기 때문이리라.
한국인들은 이해가 안되는 사람들이라는 수많은 고발에 대해 그는 보통 "마치 음식이 재료나 향료들이 세계 각지마다 다르지만 다들 먹어보면 맛있듯이, 한국에서 이상해 보이는 그 사회 현상들은 나름 그럴듯해 보이지만 알고보면 가짜 과학인 전세계 다른 나라의 것들과 별로 다를바 없는 것이다."라는 식으로 다른 문화에 대한 이해심을 가지라고 답한다.
뉴스에도 보도되어 한국에서는 과학적으로 증명이된 듯 당연히 생각하는 '밀폐된 방에 선풍기를 켜고 자면 질식사한다'는 부분에 캐나다 사람이 이런 메일을 보냈다.
"대부분의 한국사람들이 믿는 말도 안되는 이 선풍기 죽음 미신에 관심이 없느냐"고.
그가 붙인 답변은 "예 나도 관심이 가네요. 하지만 아마 대다수의 한국인들은 이 황당한 이야기를 믿지 않을겁니다. 내가 한국에서 가진 경험들은 그들이 아주 감각적이고, 이성적인 사람들로 나를 만족시켰거든요."
근데 진짜로 이거 말도 안되는 소리인가? 9시 뉴스에서 전문가 인터뷰까지 나오는 걸 몇 번은 본 것 같은데?
ON YOUTUBE
Reader Jon Dunbar, in South Korea, tells us of something I’d never heard of before…
Only recently I was able to track down clips on Youtube. I'm a Canadian and my wife is Korean. My wife remembers when she was very young seeing an Uri Geller special on TV, so I tracked down some videos about him that involved you. I was very pleased to see you've visited Korea, and I'd love to find a copy of the shows you did.
Anyway, this might not be right up your alley, but I thought you might take interest in it. Stop me if you've heard of "fan death" before. Basically it's a common belief in Korea that sleeping in a closed room with the fan on will cause death. It's strange, but nearly every Korean believes it. The newspapers report dozens of fan deaths every summer, and even fan manufacturers themselves include warnings on their packaging. This may not be a case of a fraudulent psychic bilking people out of their money, but think of all those unexplained deaths every year.
What I find interesting about fan death is how people consider it science. They will insist there are scientific reasons for it, and may even be able to explain them. They know fans cause death, so why? Maybe the fans create a vortex around your mouth, sucking away the oxygen? Or maybe the fan releases carbon monoxide, or it might chop up air particles and make them unbreathable? And if fans are not lethal in other countries, maybe it's due to Koreans' unique physiology?
Some people in Korea are starting to see that fan death is not real, but I still hear about it from time to time. Recently five Koreans tried to commit suicide by locking themselves in a hotel room and turning on a fan. The only reason they survived, reports the media, is because one of them backed out and turned off the fan. Unfortunately, I haven't seen this article in the English media yet.
Anyway, I was hoping you'd be interested. Wikipedia has a good description of fan death, at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_Death
Yes, Jon, I find this very interesting, but I really think that the majority of South Koreans will not accept this strange notion. My experiences there have satisfied me that they’re very sensible, rational, folks…
또다른 서양인의 고발성 글과 그의 답변.
http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-03/032307hope.html#i8
THE KOREAN SITUATION
Reader Kevin O'Brien is mystified:
I'm a long-time fan of yours and greatly respect you and your work. I also lived in Korea for 7 years, which is why I was mystified by your response to the letter you received about the Korean belief in "fan death." I realize you've traveled to Korea several times, and you have your own impressions from that experience. But if you speak to anyone that has lived and worked in South Korea for any period of time, they will undoubtedly tell you two things which directly contradict your response:
(1) An overwhelming majority of Koreans do, in fact believe in fan death. I would personally put my own estimate at, at least 98% of the population. I was a teacher in Korea and came in contact with thousands and thousands of students of different ages over my 7 years there, and the number of people I met who did not believe in fan death, I could count on one hand.
The Korean media is the reason for the widespread belief, as they have consistently reported the supposed phenomenon repeatedly over the last 20 years (according to my Korean wife), with summer reports of fan death reaching 3-4 times weekly. I've personally seen numerous stories on Korean television and in print, always accompanied by "scientific" explanations for why the fan was the cause of death, and actual doctors doing the explaining. There are also public service announcements warning people about fan death on television and in the print media throughout the summer. It wasn't until last year that I saw the very first article even questioning the validity of fan death, and it was written by an American doctor in an English-language daily, which is mainly read by the foreign community, and reaches very few Koreans.
I'm sure you will receive other emails from Westerners living in Korea, and my psychic abilities tell me they will all tell you the same thing... Koreans firmly believe in fan death.
(2) Koreans on the whole are unfortunately, quite far from being "rational and sensible" folks, and this is the main reason that fan death and many other ridiculous beliefs still permeate the society. I say this as someone who lived there and learned a lot about the country and its culture through firsthand experience. As a traditionally Confucian society, questioning your parents, elders, or any type of authority is frowned upon and negatively reinforced. This leads to unquestioning, unskeptical belief in what you're told by anyone in authority. In addition, superstition plays a HUGE role in Korean culture. There are literally tens of thousands of fortune-tellers of every variety all over the country, and they are a commonly accepted device by which to make life decisions (who to marry, college major, where to live, what job to take). I personally know many, many Koreans who literally refused to marry a longtime boyfriend or girlfriend because a fortune-teller told them they were not a good match. It is VERY common in Korea. There are thousands of what are called "fortune-teller cafes" in every city and small town in Korea, and they do huge business, as do roadside tellers as well as high-end tellers to the rich and famous.
In fact, politicians make public visits to fortune tellers as campaign photo ops, and presidents are very well known for visiting certain gravesites to receive the "blessings" of their ancestors in order to do well in elections. Once again, the media plays a very large role in perpetuating the ability of psychics and other scam artists. Skepticism is rare, and in Korean culture, anyone that does not go along with a common belief (i.e. skeptic) is considered an outcast and is accused of ruining the "mood." Korean culture highly values conformity of belief, and questioning well-known superstitions is akin to treason. It simply is not done without fear of ostracism.
I could go on with countless other examples, but I've written enough already. Please keep up your very valuable work, but do not let your limited experience in a few trips to Korea fool you into thinking it is a society based on rational and sensible thinking. It is far, far more enslaved to psychics and superstition than the United States, and is in far more need of your insight than you realize.
Kevin, I thank you for your thorough discussion of this matter, but I must say that my own experience – though hardly as extensive as yours – showed me a rather different picture of South Korean culture. My exposure to the thoughts, opinions, and conclusions of these people was rather limited to what I could obtain through translation, of course. Certainly, all of those who worked with me in the Seoul Broadcasting System [SBS] were rational, dedicated to scientific thinking, and determined to present to their viewing audience a correct picture of how the supernatural beliefs and claims of those who were trying for the million-dollar prize, were only pleasant notions or outright deceptions.
Mr. Sang-Moon Nam, our producer, impressed me hugely for many reasons, but particularly because he listened carefully to my input. He respected the fact that I had vast experience in designing appropriate tests for supposedly paranormal events and powers, and he took my advice – which I cannot say other producers have always done.
This was never more evident than when Nam took a TV crew off to Malaysia to investigate a faker there who was using a high-frequency, high-voltage, generator to produce spectacular – but ineffective – electrical effects on his patients. Because this man had announced that he would not perform if I were present – for some unknown reason! – Nam had to use his ingenuity to trap him, and he did, definitively and convincingly. In fact, all the SBS personnel offered their valuable input to the production, and the academics who became involved, were very aware and generous with their contributions. Several projects in the series were initiated and carried out by SBS without my participation, and I could not fault them in any respect.
I have several good Korean friends here in the United States and in Canada, and they certainly are not superstitious or prone to believe in pseudoscience. Again, I admit that this is a selected population, and may not represent the South Korean people in general. This of course does not directly address the “fan death” aspect in Korea, but I’ve never seen any of these friends expressing Fear of Fans…
Your observations are gratefully received, and we will take them into consideration, Kevin.