05/11/98
Dear Editor, Once again I find that your magazine carries the disturbing
influence of Mr Geller,and his insidious pseudo- religious,
quasi-scientific,mumbo-jumbo,this time in the form of Margaret Rocker who
thinks that stress can affect a computer,that there is
precognition,
and inexplicably items turn up on her computer via the internet. Can I remind
your readers and Mr Geller that it was scientists,not spiritualists who
invented the computer, that stress is an emotional state,something that
computers cannot by definition feel,and that there is no such thing as
precognition,because the same law that allows computers to
function,Quantum Physics,is the same one that
imposes a non-deterministic future.
The "inexplicable" items that Mrs Rocker refers to would no doubt be explained
by any net surfer as SPAM, or unsolicited mail.Being a novice,and nervous,it
is unlikely that Mrs Rocker is aware of just what kind of things this technology
is capable of.Certainly nothing has materialised from another plane,been
unduly influenced by her nervousness,or reacted in anyway to the wholly ignorant
points of view of Mr Geller.
Computers are SCIENCE,not religion,and if Mr Geller wants to continue is
cult/sect brand of mythology,then could he at least have the honesty to make
his position clear,and stop undermining scientific advances with his
spiritualistic baloney.I urge Margaret to fully understand that nature of
the technology in which she has chosen to immerse herself,if she does,she
will fast realise that the paranormal is a contradiction in terms,and that
in order to utilise the gifts of science one must accept that the views which
gave birth to the technology are valid in that they can be shown to work.
Utililising a computer whilst believing in the supernatural is not to acknowledge
the mutual exclusivity of the vantage points.Belief is hearsay,science is
knowledge.One cannot believe that the future is predefined,whilst utilising
a technology that is living proof that it is not,it is the height of a confused
and deluded mind to think that you can,and it is why other writers have asked
for Mr Geller and his cohorts to be removed from what is ostensibly a scientific
publication.
By giving him a voice,you lend credibility to his views,which undermine the
subject of your magazine.To keep him on just does not make any sense
whatsoever,as you are undermining your own subject. If I were a cynic (which
I am) I might suggest that his only role is to provoke controversy by expounding
utter codswallop,and that possibly he is the financier of your publication.
Your readers who seem largely not to be technically gifted,will,like Ray
Levy,allow such nonsense to be given an airing on the grounds of free speech
and balance.Mr Levy suggested that religion should be kept out of it,so why
print Mrs Rocker's letter,if not to be controversial? What happens when someone's
opinion is proven wrong via the facts?
Mr Geller has been proven wrong time and
again,and to allow him to spread his lies in your pages,lowers your
magazine to the level of the Sunday Sport and "Bomber found on the Moon"
stories.
Computers deal with electrical pulses,Mrs Rocker,not emotions.When they start
suffering from stress either from us or themselves,believe me, the
millenium bug
will look like a microbe.
PS. GET RID OF URI GELLER