A REAL Man-Machine Interface

I see they're shutting down the PEAR, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory. After some 30 years of generating controversy and reams of odd data about telekinesis, the PEAR is closing up shop, done in by exhaustion and time. Opened in 1979, the lab explored whether humans could change physical events with just the power of mind. Turns out, as the lab concludes, they can, but only very slightly, something like 2 or 3 events out of 10,000.

Research into the paranormal isn't what it once was. The Psychophysical Research Laboratories (PRL), also located in Princeton, shut down. Duke University's Parapsychology Laboratory, perhaps the most famous of them all, spun off its parapsychology work into the now-independent Rhine Research Center. It's named after Dr. Joseph Banks Rhine who invented those famous cards while at Duke. Interest in the paranormal appears to have peaked many years ago, and now even the scientists who had high hopes for actual results may be drifting away.

But the PEAR was interesting to HCI'ers because it focused on telekinesis, controlling things with thoughts. If telekinesis could be shown, then it might be possible to change the TV channel just by projecting a thought in that direction. Sadly, the prospect now looks bleak.