Skeptic Society founder Michael Shermer dedicates his life to debunking myths, superstitions and urban legends, and also explaining why we believe them. Along with publishing Skeptic Magazine, he's author of Why People Believe Weird Things and The Mind of the Market.
Why you should listen to him:
As founder and publisher of Skeptic Magazine, Michael Shermer has exposed fallacies behind intelligent design, 9/11 conspiracies, the low-carb craze, alien sightings and other popular beliefs and paranoias. But it's not about debunking for debunking's sake. Shermer defends the notion that we can understand our world better only by matching good theory with good science. Thus, in order to explore a conspiracy theory that pre-planted explosives caused the World Trade Center towers to fall on 9/11, the magazine called on demolition experts.
Shermer's work offers cognitive context for our often misguided beliefs: In the absence of sound science, incomplete information can powerfully combine with the power of suggestion (helping us hear Satanic lyrics when "Stairway to Heaven" plays backwards, for example). In fact, a common thread that runs through beliefs of all sorts, he says, is our tendency to convince ourselves: We overvalue the shreds of evidence that support our preferred outcome, and ignore the facts we aren't looking for.
Blog Posts on TED
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Where's the gorilla? – November 1, 2008
Several people wrote to TED this week asking about a clip that's been making the rounds recently -- starring a gorilla and a bunch of kids tossing a basketball. If you got this clip from a friend, and you're wondering why you can't find it on TED, here's the story:
The gorilla/basketball clip was shown during Michael Shermer's onstage talk at TED in 2006, but we don't have the rights to share this clip online. And Michael Shermer's TEDTalk is wonderful even without the gorilla -- full of mind-bending and eye-opening examples of how easily we fool ourselves, and why we believe such strange things.
You can buy a DVD containing the gorilla/basketball video and 19 more visual awareness demonstrations from Viscog Productions. Look for the DVD called Surprising Studies of Visual Awareness, Vol. 1. This year, Viscog released Surprising Studies, Vol. 2, with more "striking demonstrations that can induce failures of awareness." (Educators, see if you qualify for the School Teacher License discount.)
Or you can watch Tom Rielly's satire of the 2006 TED Conference, and see his version (it's in the fourth chapter, "Where's the Gorilla?"). It's a less striking demonstration, perhaps, but there's no doubt it's a strange thing.
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Edge question 2008: What have you changed your mind about? Why? – January 2, 2008
Many TEDTalks speakers have answered the 2008 Edge Foundation question: What have you changed your mind about? Why?
Among the more than 160 essays from leading thinkers -- scientists, philosophers, artists -- look for Wired's Chris Anderson, Nick Bostrom, Stewart Brand, Richard Dawkins, Aubrey de Grey, Juan Enriquez, Helen Fisher, Neil Gershenfeld, Daniel Gilbert, Daniel Goleman, Kevin Kelly, Steven Pinker, Carolyn Porco, Martin Rees, Michael Shermer and Craig Venter. Block out some time to sample these -- it's an addictive read.
