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In Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950) Alan Turing claims that "the statistical evidence [for Extrasensory Perception], at least for telepathy, is overwhleming".

My Google searches have largely turned up pseudo-scientific nonsense and I wondered if anyone here could point me in the direction of the statistical evidence Turing thought was "overwhelming"?

George Chalhoub
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hammus
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    This question appears to be off-topic because it is about the motivations on an individual, which we cannot definitively answer. – Oddthinking Jun 19 '14 at 12:21
  • See [this for more info](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/621/politics-beliefs-and-motivations-questions-should-not-be-allowed-here) – Oddthinking Jun 19 '14 at 12:27
  • I agree with @Oddthinking that is off topic in the current state; however, if I had to hazard a guess, it was most likely the work of [Joseph Rhine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Banks_Rhine). – rjzii Jun 19 '14 at 12:41
  • @Oddthinking I edited the title – ChrisW Jun 19 '14 at 13:55
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    @ChrisW: At that point, we realise Turing is no authority on this and cites no references, and we should change the question to "Is there overwhelming statistical evidence of telepath?" then simplify it to "Does telepathy exist?" and then mark it as a duplicate of http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/361/does-telepathy-exist – Oddthinking Jun 19 '14 at 14:03
  • @Oddthinking I think keeping it off-topic since it is about motivations is likely best. Given that the quote is from the 1950 that means we are looking back with an additional 60 or more years of data that we can make conclusions based upon whereas if Turing was looking at the Rhine data as it was being published then it would have looked quite compelling at the time. – rjzii Jun 19 '14 at 14:09
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    It's a history question: not whether there is (now) statistical evidence, but whether there was (in Alan Turing's possession) evidence. – ChrisW Jun 19 '14 at 14:09
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    @ChrisW It was most likely the the Rhine data then, which was compelling at the time but it largely dismissed now due to experimental design and inability to replicate the results. Incidentally "Extrasensory Perception After Sixty Years" (1940) by Rhine et al is credited as being the first meta-analysis in the history of science. – rjzii Jun 19 '14 at 14:12
  • http://stackoverflow.com/a/19729108/49942 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AScientific_investigation_of_telepathy#Another_citation_needed point to Rhine. – ChrisW Jun 19 '14 at 14:18
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    @ChrisW - Thanks very much for the SO link, I am in total agreement with that answer in that the paragraph on ESP is odd (though I can't convince myself that Turing was intending for it to be tongue in cheek). Thanks all for pointing out Rhine, exactly what I was looking for. While I am a relatively prolific SO user and this was the first time I had posted a question on skeptics, so I am in no position to question the classification as Off-topic, but I will suggest that if skeptics wishes to attract a strong user base, a gentler approach to newcomers might be worth considering. – hammus Jun 19 '14 at 23:11

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