From Internet scams to urban legends, planet X to the Bible code: CSICOP Albuquerque Conference has fun exposing hoaxes, myths and manias - hoa - Albuquerque Conference Section

The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) came for the first time to the American Southwest with its conference "Hoaxes, Myths ,and Manias" Nov. 23-26 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The region has a rich scientific heritage going back to Robert Goddard's rocket experiments near Roswell in the early 1930s, the birth of the nuclear age here in the 1940s, two world-famous national laboratories pushing the frontiers of applied science and technology, new astronomical observatories sprouting up on mountain peaks, and a Ph.D. per-capita ratio greater than any other state. It 'also, ironically, has always attracted more than its share of New Agers, mystics, and seekers, and of course it is home to that most famous of all modern myths and associated hoaxes, the Roswell crashed flying saucer story.

The conference was a lively affair with sessions spread over four days, Thursday evening to Sunday noon. Happily this time none were concurrent, so the neatly 300 registrants didn't have to miss anything. It was preceded by a limited-attendance windshield tour of Sandia National Laboratories on the southeast edge of Albuquerque and followed by a nine-hour, two-bus tour to the southeastern part of the state to Roswell and its weird little UFO museum. Lots of out-of-state attendees took extra time to explore New Mexico's natural history and cultural attractions.

One of the things that seemed to mark this conference was a nice mixture of near-legendary figures who founded the modern skeptical movement in the 1970s (Paul Kurtz, Ray Hyman, and at least six other CSICOP Fellows spoke) and a newer generation of skeptical inquirers who are advancing the cause of scientific skepticism in their own ways on Web sites, Web publications, and so on. It was, an opportunity for them all to meet and hear each other. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun--both at the conference ,and in their work/hobbies of exposing various seams, shams, deceits, deceptions, misconceptions, and other manner of skullduggery.

Two noted psychologists and CSICOP Fellows started things off with presentations designed to help people understand some of the general principles underlying specific cases they'd be hearing later from others. Barry Beyerstein (Simon Fraser University) presented a useful tutorial on, essentially, the psychology of belief, with abundant references to the Belief Engine model of CSICOP colleague and fellow psychologist James Alcock (SI May/June 1995). Then Ray Hyman (University of Oregon, emeritus), who later in the conference would be given CSICOP's In Praise of Reason Award (see page 5) described the psychology of the con, which included some demonstrations of how easily we can all be deceived. Con men (and women) all have a good practical knowledge of human psychology, and they prey on the human trust that make societies function. Successful con artists charm potential victims with their immense likability, and they combine that with an utter lack of compassion for their victims. They also often work in teams with one person posing as an innocent customer to help draw the victim in.

Alex Boese (author of The Museum of Hoaxes and creator of the Web site museumofhoaxes.com) began the first full day of sessions with a presentation perhaps prototypical of those at the conference: an amusing treatment of Internet and media hoaxes. He called the Internet "the greatest medium for hoaxes of all time." Some hoaxers use email, stone use the Web. E-mail hoaxes spread rapidly in viral fashion; some are outrageous and amusing, others have broad consequences.

Boese clearly seems to enjoy good hoaxes; he complained that annoying e-mail hoaxes "give the phenomenon of hoaxes a bad name." Other kinds he finds "more interesting." These include fake press release hoaxes. Examples: Microsoft is buying the Catholic Church and has bought exclusive rights to the Bible, 1994; the false report originated by a humor Web site dirt of all the presidents, George W. Bush's IQ is the lowest at 92 (The Guardian published it as fact on July 21, 2001, and Gary Trudeau used it in his Doonesbury comic strip); and Alabama changes the value of pi from 3.14 to "the biblical value of 3.0," an April Fool's hoax that originated with New Mexicans for Science and Reason, the local host of this conference, as a parody of creationist attempts to block evolution).

There are hoax photographs, including Cordell's cat, a photo of a digitally enlarged 23-pound cat that quickly went out to millions of people worldwide, and the humorous photo of a shark leaping at a helicopter, a splice of two digital images. Another category is hoax political humor photos (President Bush with a book upside down, Representative Tom Daschle pledging allegiance with his left hand over his heart). Still another is "dark humor in the wake of disastrous tragedy," like the hoaxed Albuquerque photo of a tourist on the World Trade Center observation deck as one of the hijacked airliners of September 11, 2001, flew toward him. It was the wrong kind of plane.