Talking with astrophysicist Javier Armentia has the good that one knows in advance, as soon as he knows his interlocutor, that the statements are going to be accompanied by reasoning and reflections that support them. Perhaps the explanation is that one fails to direct the Pamplona Planetarium without always having the question "Why?" at the tip of the tongue.
One of his latest initiatives is to get at the helm of a ship in which they are also the ARP-Society for the Advancement of Critical Thinking and the publisher laetoli. It is a collection of essays called What a scam!, whose titles deal with topics that their authors have identified "tricks that are repeated and sold as true."
Why a collection like What a scam!?
Too many occasions we are faced with something that is offered to us, advertised or thrown at us, which is, at least, something strange if we think about it. If it is very obvious, we all understand that this is a scam, or at least that they want to sell us a motorcycle. But, how do you know if something is a scam if it is usually talked about well, appears in the media, many people buy it or even the competent authorities endorse it? We have probably never considered whether that is good or not, but if we do we will not have all the information either, simply because in many cases nobody talks about it being false, misleading or malicious. When history is analyzed, the theories presented, the alleged evidence of efficacy or existence, when one takes the trouble to search deep down what is being sold to us, sometimes we find all the defining elements of a scam, of a deception often created with the intention of deceiving, teasing us, taking away money, sometimes health and almost always time.
The vayatimos were born to provide information in this unequal situation. They are books that declare what they contain, they do not pretend that things are not known, or that everything is relative, something too fashionable in these times. They take sides with reason, critical thinking, science, history, and use objective tools to dismantle the lying and self-serving claims of mystery makers and mystery ship sellers of the paranormal.
The issues are as many as human activities around us, because there is a lot of scam in almost everything. In the collection we want a wide range. From big scams, apparently serious or respectable that are the most dangerous, or very old or very lucrative, to the lightest, those that seem silly without more. But the collection began by looking at various popular themes, which always appear in the media, the kind that sometimes generate a certain debate after a dinner with friends. Among the partners of ARP Society for the Advancement of Critical Thinking (www.skeptics.es) which is the association that is together with Editorial Laetoli behind the collection, we did an informal consultation of what were the topics that they saw fit to discuss. Thus came some of the first, sometimes eternal issues such as astrology or the powers of the mind, religion or the afterlife, sometimes burning issues such as psychoanalysis or the lunar conspiracy, other classics that "mystery scientists" live. such as UFOs, the holy sheet, the Loch Ness monster ... And a wide etcetera in which we want to introduce topics that meet that requirement: that they are presented to us as true without adequate evidence, that they become popular uncritically or that they become fashion simply because in these times anything exotic becomes fashionable.
But there are those who say that these kinds of things (pseudosciences) reassure, help or serve them ... Or that "science cannot explain everything."
Of course science cannot explain everything. In fact, one should doubt who claims to be able to explain everything, solve everything, or completely comfort us all. We live in an amazing world and science is an activity that tries to explain it the best it can, but by the definition of the world, and of science, that knowledge is incomplete, inaccurate. Our job is to get better certainties, get to know nature better and understand it. This process, however, is sometimes incomprehensible or unsettling for many people. We think, for example, about issues that are perceived as a source of risk: we usually abandon the rational character and when science tells us that we cannot reasonably worry about that, because studies have not shown anything dangerous, we look at the scientist and say: Can you assure us that this is not bad? And the scientist cannot do it, because he will say that there is a low probability, that at the current level of knowledge that is what we have… On the contrary, someone interested in selling us the opposite will appear who will affirm without ambiguity that this is terrible. Or that you have the ultimate solution. It is understandable that, insecure in a potentially hostile world, we embrace what gives us security. Many pseudosciences or tricks are born of this trend.
However, although it is sometimes slower than simply asserting or selling the fabulous potion, the method of science provides reasonably certain information, from which reasonably certain progress can be derived, knowledge that allows reasonable progress. We do not realize it, but this world has transformed that knowledge more than the irrational beliefs that became very popular.
The titles of the collection What a scam!: Are they books for those who are already convinced, or for those who are about to convince?
They are entertaining, informative books with truthful information. Therefore they are for anyone who is curious. Possibly, whoever believes in that story will find hostility towards their belief, and my experience is that it is impossible to convince someone who knows the ultimate truth. However, we all have a gullible inside us, and there are many issues that we had not even raised before. This collection tries, precisely, to give reasons why that credulous person can realize that this is a scam or, at least, a waste of time. Especially several of them are thought of a young public, who have heard or seen talk about these issues normally within pseudoscientific spaces that promote them uncritically. A young person can, and should, know the world for real, not the self-serving fictions of the mystery peddlers. There we also try, with the collection What a scam!, give reasons where propaganda is usually given.
Everyone who writes does so to communicate. But considering the topics covered in the collection What a scam!, it seems clear that dissemination goes from being something very important to being an absolute priority. How have you approached this matter?
In this we have come across a world more stormy than that of pseudosciences. Laetoli has in principle a good network of distributors in Spain, but any publisher that is not one of the big ones comes out with few points, with few copies, with little promotion, and it is difficult to get anything else, because they are essay books, and on topics usually considered marginal. Even so, it is a collection born in the 10st century and these texts printed on paper have generated many comments on the Internet. We have a paradigmatic case with the number XNUMX of the vayatimos, where Eugenio Fernández Aguilar, with a lot of movement in the scientific blogosphere has managed to shake the book more than any campaign paid for by a major publisher would have been capable of. Sometimes little ones can make big moves.
In any case, we want the collection to be better known, and above all to be the source of discussions. We are preparing for the next releases a wider public access, with more debate and more information. I think the songs deserve it. And the public, above all.
A director of a collection like What a scam!What do you do fundamentally?
In this case, as the director of a collection, I declare my utmost ignorance of what MUST be done. Fortunately, the editor has a lot of experience in his work, and the Society for the Advancement of Critical Thinking has a history of disseminating rationality and science that is a great help. At first, a shortlist of topics came, talking to experts to find authors who would be encouraged to an adventure in which the economic factor would go far behind the need to have books on these issues ... Some appeared knocking on the door, as the first volumes have been coming out. Others have to be persecuted for a long time. My role is that, in addition to collaborating with the editing work, which is always exciting, especially in those final stages in which you try on the one hand to hunt the rabbit and on the other to imagine the book on the shelf, calling the reader, and what you will think of when you read it. The director of a collection in that is like a first-time conductor, but of an orchestra so good that he knows how to sound great.
By what criteria are the specialists who write on each topic selected?
I have commented on it succinctly before: we have looked for authors who are sensitized to the general idea of the collection, to disseminate critical thinking in the face of as much scam as we have, experts in various subjects who could also give an authoritative and relevant opinion, disseminators of these issues in the media communication, also teachers who have to deal with this defense of the rational in a world not very inclined to think autonomously. Looking at the payroll, we have a bit of everything, and I think that with the next volumes we will also try to get closer to the world of communication and journalism.
Given the present, the question is obliged: Do we humans really get to the Moon? What reasons do you think explains why a lunar conspiracy theory emerged?
A co-worker told me the other day that the lunar conspiracy is as if I suddenly said: "Sanfermines in 69 were not celebrated, there is a conspiracy bent on deceiving us." You could tell me: but there are photos, television, newspapers ... All lies, manipulations, montages with photos taken elsewhere. Then he would say to me: but there are witnesses, I know people who were then ... They lie, they are in league, or bought, or perhaps scared because the conspiracy has a very long hand and their lives would be in danger. Then you could tell me that it would be impossible to maintain a lie like that for so long and with so many people involved. And that is exactly the point where I could not refute him: it is unthinkable that close to a million people (those who worked directly in the Apollo missions in the United States and those who did the same in the Soviet lunar missions) lied then and continue to lie for forty years. later.
Why did this strange idea arise? Because we live in a world in which the media favor the popularization of strange, exotic or crazy ideas. They are news. It was news that a subject, in the year 74, a year after the last Apollo, said that everything was a montage. At that time, this was in line with what was happening: the great lie of Vietnam, the great lies and corruption of Nixon, the hidden government and support for the dictatorships of the Kisinger era began to show itself to the world. Why wouldn't they have also lied about something that seemed as complicated as going to the Moon? From there, this news was picked up by the media and they made it their own, allowing us to reach the current situation in which every time someone mentions the trip to the Moon, the possible conspiracy must be mentioned, for the sake of a false neutrality or impartiality. of the information.
Please tell us about Editorial Laetoli. How has the experience of working with them been?
A marvel. Laetoli is the fruit of a person's love for books. The editor, Serafín Senosiáin comes from the world of literature: poet, novelist, editor… And he said that Laetoli was born because it was found that there were many books that he wanted to read but no one published around here, no one wrote or they did not know each other. He used the muddy footprints from several million years ago in Africa as an icon for a publishing house that wants to leave footprints for the future. If one believed in nonsense, it would be precious to say that Laetoli was predestined to host all of us. But let's be serious: a commitment to rational, critical thinking, collections of powerful and provocative essays, open and attractive scientific dissemination were more than enough guarantees to think that this editorial was the place to establish the first Spanish commitment to critical thinking. For many years, more than a quarter of a century, we Spanish skeptics had thought that something like this should be done. But between the idea (the conviction) and the action there is a stretch that had not been saved until talking with Laetoli. In fact, in part, it was Laetoli who was looking for something like this, and ARP Society for Critical Thought was the only and logical association that could undertake a work of this type, because we had imagined it for a long time and we knew the right people for it. crossing.
Thank you very much for the answers, Javier.