Are you psychic? New app claims it can tell you
Commentary: Am I Psychic? says it uses scientific methods to show whether you're, you know, paranormal.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
There's science behind this?
We all have undiscovered talents.
Why, I learned only recently that I can tolerate 30 minutes of "Game Of Thrones."
Have you ever wondered whether you might have one more sense than your friends? Yes, the sixth one that makes you a teeny bit psychic.
A new app claims it can test if you really have it.
Am I Psychic? wants you to "find out how powerful you really are."
The designers say the app uses legitimate scientific methods to analyze the way you play its games. It then determines whether you're just another human or a little bit superior.
The games include, oh yes, trying to bend a spoon with your mind.
I asked the app's creator, Dominic Parker -- who's just been accepted into the Ph.D clinical psychology program at Saybrook University in California -- what led him to this.
"I have had a healthy academic interest in parapsychology for most of my adult life," he told me. That made me wonder at what point an interest becomes unhealthy?
The app, he says, is a way to broaden the public's interest in parapsychology.
But it's more than that. He intends to collect the data he receives and hopefully publish it in an academic journal.
In one test, the app uses a "cryptographically secure random number generator" to simulate coin flips. The flips are "random enough to be considered adequate for academic research," Parker said.
The app tests for both psychokinesis -- mind over matter, to you -- and extra sensory perception.
Parker insists you won't feel any science going on. You'll just be having fun. The science will be, he said, "operating behind the scenes." That's pleasantly ominous!
Parker charges $1.99 for his creation, but part of the profits will go to the Rhine Research Center, America's oldest parapsychological laboratory.
I can't predict how well Parker's app will do. I can imagine, though, that more than a few people will want to see if their minds bend further than those of mere mortals.
Just imagine if your LinkedIn profile could have this element added: "Scientifically-endorsed psychic."
I see that boosting your career prospects.