h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F83178?thread=167951 There has been a (hopefully) interesting deveopment on the above thread from the Horoscopes Talking Point. I have challenged astrologers to draw my horoscope based on information provided in the thread. I will publish all the results I receive and they can be compared to see how alike they are. Rather than debating whether astrology works, let's put it to the test!

What information have you provided in order for them to draw your horoscope?

Here's the really interesting question:

Who will have their opinion of Astrology changed as a result of this test?

Yeah, probably not a very well made test. And don't be so hard on the poor astrologers

Why shouldn't we be hard on 'poor old astrologers', who seem to think nothing whatever of taking money, nomally from the poorer sections of society, to peddle their unsubstantiated nonsense?

They don't just take it from the poorer sections. Channel 4 did a program about astrology and horoscopes last year in which there were several astrologers who visited companies and plotted 'horoscopes' for the company to see whether there were problems ahead, whether it was a good time to do a particular deal, etc. While I might stretch a point for a well-plotted personal horoscope, how do you determine the date / time / place of 'birth' for a company's horoscope? It made me doubt the sanity of the people who ran those companies. (One of them, as far as I can remember, was Anita Roddick!)

These were British astrologers visiting British companies. No offense to our US friends, but it's the sort of thing that I would expect of companies over there. I always thought that the people who run British companies were too sensible and down-to-earth to fall for such nonsense!

I don't like astrologers either. It is an awful thing. I just read some of the posts in that astrology discussion by one woman, and felt all sorry for how little grasp she had of reality

Xanatic-
Cheerful Dragon-I despair. I really do.

In Denmark there were also cases where companies used it for employment. So you could be very well qualified for a job, but be rejected because your horoscope said you were unstable ro an alcoholic or so.

Thanks to my astronomy teacher, that has stopped again.

And they call Graham Hancock a crank!
Really, it's pretty scary stuff, isn't it?

The scary stuff is when you hear of a president who consults his astrologer, before making decisions.

"Who will have their opinions changed?"

Me for one, if the result comes out in favour of the Astrologists. It's because I object to being called closed-minded that I set the challenge in the first place.

I'll concede that the challenge isn't the most scientific in the world, but I think it's fair. I will provide information requested by any challengee to ALL challengees, and they in turn will each produce a chart for me independantly of each other. I'll publish all the charts I receive, and everyone can then judge the consistency.

It's a nice, anecdotal, money-where-the-mouth-is time.

Sounds like an excellent idea, I've one suggestion to make though, just to ensure that the astrologists can't say you are lying when and if they all get it completely wrong, it might be an idea to write a short biography of yourself and email it to someone independant (or even to yourself if you couldn't find an independant person... that way they could forward the email (complete with dated headers) to all interested in the results - if you were challenged as lying about yourself

Blues Shark, I'll remember your feelings on the matter the next time you start muttering 'bloody geminis'!

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Sounds fair. I'm not sure what information will need to be provided, because I've never seen a "proper" chart. Doubtless some kind soul will let me know what to write.

Do I have a volunteer to act as repository?

BTW, I'm "formalising" the Challenge on A702875

Geoff

Er, could someone answer my question in post 2.

Gender, Date and Time of Birth, Location of Birth.

And I've offered to provide other necessary details on request.

Male, 4th May 1969, 4:22am, Bury, Manchester, UK.

Date of birth, time of birth(don't know how precise they want that) and lattitude and longtitude of birthplace. That is the most precise demands I've heard. They don't work any better of course

I am not saying I am closed minded, just that doing something like this online makes it all a bit too vague. People will always be able to argue that some little details was wrong.

We could also take 12 random researchers, and make their biographies. Then have someone make their horoscopes, not knowing which birthdates fitted who. And then have them try and find the correct people based on the horoscopes.

Doing it all online *is* a bit too vague, but hey, we're an online community! Needs must, as they say.

People could argue that details were wrong, yes, but if everyone is working from the same details, then the same mistakes should be made in each case and the playing field is level.

I'm more interested in seeing consistency between the charts than anything else.

BTW, what do they say about guys with big feet? Big shoe bill?