Cambridge Skeptics

Never one to back down from a challenge to my skepticism, I’ve been looking into climate conspiracies, and no, not the well-documented conspiracy by Big Oil, following the playbook shared with Big Tobacco, to sow doubt about what is now one of the strongest consensuses in modern science. Instead, I was encouraged to "look into" the conspiracy theories that campaign paid for, by asking: who was supposedly “behind” the global warming movement? Spoiler: it sure looks to me like the culprit was the overwhelming body of scientific evidence...

My friends know I'm the one who tries every new app and reports back, so when the AI companion topic came up, everyone wanted my honest take. The short version: I keep recommending SweetDream. Not because the others are bad, ourdream.ai and the rest each have something going for them, but because sweetdream.ai nails the whole experience instead of one piece of it.

What I mean is, the character you build actually feels like yours, from her personality down to her voice. The chat is warm and remembers context. The generated photos and videos look like the same companion every time. And it all stays private, which lets you actually let your guard down.

Join us for two Cambridge Skeptic in the Pub events this week!

Risk researcher Prof Magda Osman joins us at The Blue Moon on Tuesday for a sympathetic discussion over a therapeutic pint about what happens when your AI companion app dumps you.

Then, veteran skeptical investigators Dr Karen Stollznow and Mathew Baxter join us at The Alex on Friday for those who want to see how paranormal claims are investigated so badly.

There is a message for all of us: No one is immune from the objectivity illusion, and, for scientists, it is especially harmful, wrote Magda Osman for Psychology Today in July 2022. Join Prof Magda Osman at the Alex on July 29 for a pint and an entirely objective discussion on the psychological harms of disruptive technologies.

"The halfway point between the truth and a lie is still a lie." - Lee McIntyre. Go all the way with Dr Lee McIntyre tomorrow evening in The Alex, as we begin the fight back against disinformation with a pint and a plot.

"There simply is no scientifically credible evidence that we have alien visitors. If there were, there would no longer be a mystery; there would no longer be a controversy." - Philip J. Klass

"If you’ve never seen a UFO, you’re not very observant. And if you’ve seen as many as I have, you won’t believe in them." - Arthur C. Clarke

"I think that it is much more likely that the reports of flying saucers are the results of the known irrational characteristics of terrestrial intelligence than of the unknown rational efforts of extra-terrestrial intelligence." - Richard Feynman

"Everything that we actually resolve turns out to be something fairly mundane and the rest seems to be just simply lacking information." - Mick West

Cambridge Skeptics Recommend "On Disinformation"

The war for truth and democracy is upon us; let Lee McIntyre's little red book be your indispensable guide for fighting this new cultural revolution.