Legg merke til at det er en produsent av sirkuskabler (øh, "referansekabler") som hevder at dette er bløff. Dette var en høyst reell sak, men ikke først og fremst rettet mot magiske kabler. Det var en mer generell pris lovet til den første som under kontrollerte forhold demonstrerte paranormale ferdigheter, som telekineseri, tankelesing, eller lignende. At det å høre forskjell på hifikabler med like elektriske egenskaper blir satt i det selskapet burde i seg selv være litt tankevekkende om hvordan verden utenfor vår andedam ser på foreteelsene her inne.
Prisbeløpet startet på $1000 i 1964 og økte gradvis til en million etterhvert som rentene ballet på seg. Mer enn 1000 personer forsøkte, men ingen greide å demonstrere overnaturlige ferdigheter.
Et eksempel var en test av folk som mente de kunne finne vannårer med ønskekvist:
In 1979, Randi tested four people in Italy for dowsing ability (Mr. Fontana, Dr. Borga, Mr. Stanziola, and Mr. Senatore). The prize at the time was $10,000. The conditions were that a 10 meter by 10 meter test area would be used. There would be water supply and a reservoir just outside the test area. There would be three plastic pipes running underground from the source to the reservoir along different concealed paths. Each pipe would pass through the test area by entering at some point on an edge and exiting at some point on an edge. A pipe would not cross itself but it might cross others. The pipes were 3 centimeters in diameter and were buried 50 centimeters below ground. Valves would select which of the pipes water was running through, and only one would be selected at a time. At least 5 liters per second of water would flow through the selected pipe. The dowser must first check the area to see if there is any natural water or anything else that would interfere with the test, and that would be marked. Additionally, the dowser must demonstrate that the dowsing reaction works on an exposed pipe with the water running. Then one of the three pipes would be selected randomly for each trial. The dowser would place ten to one hundred pegs in the ground along the path he or she traces as the path of the active pipe. Two-thirds of the pegs placed by the dowser must be within 10 centimeters of the center of the pipe being traced for the trial to be a success. Three trials would be done for the test of each dowser and the dowser must pass two of the three trials to pass the test. A lawyer was present, in possession of Randi's $10,000 check. If a claimant were successful, the lawyer would give him or her the check. If none were successful, the check would be returned to Randi.
All of the dowsers agreed with the conditions of the test and stated that they felt able to perform the test that day and that the water flow was sufficient. Before the test they were asked how sure they were that they would succeed. All said either "99 percent" or "100 percent" certain. They were asked what they would conclude if the water flow was 90 degrees from what they thought it was and all said that it was impossible. After the test they were asked how confident they were that they had passed the test. Three answered "100 percent" and one answered that he had not completed the test.
When all of the tests were over and the location of the pipes was revealed, none of the dowsers had passed the test. Dr. Borga had placed his markers carefully, but the nearest was a full 8 feet from the water pipe. Borga said, "We are lost", but within two minutes he started blaming his failure on many things such as sunspots and geomagnetic variables. Two of the dowsers thought they had found natural water before the test started, but disagreed with each other about where it was, as well as with the ones who found no natural water.[14]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Million_Dollar_Paranormal_Challenge
Med hifikabler kom man aldri så langt at noen gjennomførte testen*. Det grunnleggende kravet var å demonstrere i en blindtest at vedkommende kunne høre forskjell på høyttalerkabler
med lik induktans, kapasitans, og resistans. Det er ingen tvil om at det kan oppstå hørbar forskjell med tilstrekkelig sære elektriske egenskaper, men her skulle de elektriske egenskapene være like og testpersonen skulle påvise forskjell ut fra alle disse
andre egenskapene enkelte mener er så viktige. Du vet, metallets renhet, påstått forvrengning fra mikrodioder i korngrensene, dielektriske tap, og alle disse andre greiene kabelguruer bruker som argument for å legge på tre-fire nuller på prislappen. Ingen stilte opp på betingelser man kunne bli enige om. I minst ett tilfelle var man enige om testbetingelser, men testpersonen forsøkte å øve litt på hjemmebane først og trakk seg før den offentlige testen, klokelig nok.
Et av eksemplene som brukes i linken fra åpningsinnlegget er et typisk stråmannsargument:
...at least one person has tried to take the "challenge" previously to show that they could differentiate between loudspeaker cables and they were denied by Randi who said "Wire is not wire. I accept that".
Joda, jeg kan sikkert også høre forskjell mellom høyttalerkabler hvis jeg får lov til å lage noen med tilstrekkelig stor forskjell i tverrsnitt og induktans, men det var ikke det som var poenget med denne utfordringen.
Randi har nå gått i pensjon og stiftelsen har stengt for nye søknader. Styret som forvalter stiftelsen har kommet til at de heller vil dele ut pengene på vanlig måte til folk som fortjener støtte enn å la pengene yngle i femti år til i påvente av at noen demonstrerer åndemaning på kommando, hører forskjell på metallers egenlyd eller demonstrerer andre overnaturlige fenomener.
http://web.randi.org/home/jref-status
Edit: *Det ble gjennomført en test av "audiofile" ethernet-kabler i 2015, men den ble ansett som en "demonstration" siden initiativtageren ikke selv mente å kunne høre forskjell på disse og vanlige ethernet-kabler. Resultatet av testen ble som man kunne forvente:
Tech journalist Lee Hutchinson approached the JREF after writing an article for Ars Technica about directional Ethernet cables that claim to "keep your audio signal completely free of electromagnetic interference". At the 2015 Amazing Meeting, the MDC set up a controlled double-blind demonstration with volunteers listening to two identical recordings with a randomly selected Ethernet cable, a normal one or the cable claiming to improve the listening experience. After seven volunteers (1 hit, 1 miss and 5 hearing no difference), the demonstration was ended as they were unable to select the "enhanced" cable over the common cable enough times to satisfy the testing protocols.
https://arstechnica.com/staff/2015/...-10000-ethernet-cable-apparently-makes-sense/