Scientific bully boys

Gordon Rutter sees how free speech is being stifled in the name of science

Psi Wars TED, Wikipedia and the Battle for the Internet

Craig Weiler White Crow Books 2020 (2nd edn) Pb, 270pp, £12.99, ISBN 9781786771179

In early 2013, TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) took down a couple of videos from their website. The TED website hosts a series of videos under the slogan “Ideas Worth Spreading”. Their self-stated mission is to be “a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world. We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world. On TED. com, we’re building a clearinghouse of free knowledge from the world’s most inspired thinkers – and a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other, both online and at TED and TEDx events around the world, all year long.” So what were the videos that were taken down, and why do we have a book about it?

One of the videos was Rupert Sheldrake talking on “The Science Delusion” and the other was Graham Hancock on “The War on Consciousness”. Both videos are still on the TED website but you have to know where to look (the blog section “the debate about…”); they are not accessible as part of the normal talk search. The reason these talks were removed? TED judged them to be not scientific.

As you can imagine, this sparked a flurry of online debate, one that the author, Craig Weiler, was heavily involved in. This updated version of his 2013 selfpublished book follows the story and looks at the wider implications. It’s a story of people with entrenched ideas and how Weiler feels science is being misused to actively block the discussion of conflicting ones.

Weiler blogged about the TED controversy at the time and many of the blog posts are repeated here and expanded upon. It’s true to say that he doesn’t like the organised ‘skepticism’ he sees unfold before him: “These ideologue skeptics have a flawed ability to think clearly. As a group they lack empathy and an internal ability to conceptualise the various repercussions of behaving badly.” He sees this coming out in the attitude of the TED organisers as well as on Wikipedia with the so-called Guerilla Skeptics movement – a group who constantly edit any and all entries that don’t fit their view of science.

The story goes on to include a TEDx meeting which is not organised by TED but affiliated to them, and it shows how views and attitudes towards Sheldrake and Hancock nearly derailed a conference a couple of weeks before it happened, a conference that TED had been supportive and aware of for many months in advance. The last minute loss of support and cancellation could have cost the organisers many thousands of dollars.

This is a compelling story of how a small number of people are trying to stifle free speech and discussion because they don’t feel the topics are worthy: a nasty underside and ultimately the sort of thing that can lead to a lack of scientific advancement. Psi Wars is full of discussion of closed-mindedness at its worst – something everyone should be worried about. ★★★★