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CIA Star Gate Project: An Overview (1993) [pdf]

116 points by dvrp

by sxp

8 subcomments

For those who want to consider the mundane explanation about remote viewing: remember that humans can still be surprised by the birthday paradox and other synchronicities that occur when sampling data at large scale. So across thousands of sessions, the weak coincidences documented by the Stargate project are expected.
For those who want a skeptical & cynical view: if remote viewing works, it would be part of the standard strategy of every hedge fund. Remember that theses are groups who pay millions for millisecond advantages in information. And you only need an ~51-55% success rate to make a killing in HFT (vs a 50% success rate from a coinflip). The fact that hedge funds don't have remote viewers on staff is evidence against RV providing utility greater than an RNG.
And for curious people who want to try a scientific approach, I suggest joining https://www.social-rv.com/ which is collecting data about RV and trying to make the experiment ironclad via blockchain authentication of predictions.

by noworld

5 subcomments

I always thought this was interesting.
May 15, 1987: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00789R0017000...
May 17, 1987: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Stark_incident

by mberning

3 subcomments

I am amazed that people take Hal Puthoff at his word that he has worked on all these secret projects for decades even though he cannot describe in definitive terms what the actual outcomes of those programs were. But he is able to talk about them for hours in the vaguest terms possible. How is that even possible. I mean I worked for an aerospace company for 5 years and could go into great and boring detail about what I did while I was there. But all these people supposedly worked on things much more exotic and can’t remember anything. This is the greatest psyop of all time.

by cushychicken

0 subcomment

It's only dumb if it doesn't work.
If it works... well, congratulations. You now have an edge that no one else knows about.

by diogenes_atx

2 subcomments

No surprise here. The geniuses at the CIA failed to anticipate the fall of the Soviet Union, ignored the warning signs about 9/11, and falsely claimed there were "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq during the American invasion in 2003. Apparently the so-called intelligence agency was busy with important research on "telepathy," "psychokinesis" and other "para-psychological phenomena."

by someothherguyy

1 subcomments

0 subcomment

by t1234s

0 subcomment

This is an excellent book that cover how wild this project was (website has incorrect url slug): https://www.anniejacobsen.com/operation-paperclip-1

by 1970-01-01

0 subcomment

by CactusBlue

0 subcomment

by franky47

1 subcomments

by westmeal

0 subcomment

by meindnoch

3 subcomments

by kubb

9 subcomments

It’s hard to believe that so recently, “serious” people would fund research of literal mumbo jumbo. By all means, the 90s was a different time epistemologically.
We aren’t immune to this today, far from it, though the hoaxes have become way more believable in my assessment.

by escanda

2 subcomments