The organizers and inspirers of the project were Alexander Sokolov (scientific journalist and popularizer of science) and Stanislav Drobyshevsky (Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University). They have been working on the Anthropogenesis website since 2011.ru", trying to counter the large-scale spread of pseudoscientific myths in the media and the Internet. At first there was an idea to hold a regular exhibition on the topic of human origins, but soon, together with other like-minded people, already in 2016 they saw the strength to organize their own educational forum, which was called “Scientists against Myths”.
Official photos Bye at the time of writing there is very little text, and I myself did not take very many photographs, as it turned out, since I did not plan to write a report. So there will be a hodgepodge of my and other people’s photos. I especially borrowed them from Vyacheslav Antonov, an employee of St. Petersburg Vedomosti. You can see more of his photos at this link.
Arriving in the summer of 2017 on the well-known channel REN-TV Alexander Sokolov told the journalist: “Now in Russia there is a huge rampant of pseudoscience, so real scientists who have really over the past decades a huge amount of facts that make the picture of the origin of man from our ape-like ancestors more detailed, detailed and beautiful, unfortunately they do not get the opportunity to tell the viewer about this, and their place is taken by all sorts of crazy people, charlatans”.
The first 3 forums were held in Moscow twice a year, and the 4th were already in St. Petersburg and from that moment they began to alternate. In October 2017, more than 1,000 spectators from Russia, near and far abroad gathered in Moscow, and another 1,000 people followed the forum’s performances online. As a final touch, an award ceremony was held for the finalists of the “Honorary Academician of VRAL” award for achievements in the field of pseudoscience.
Report from the previous forum
The purpose of the forum is to provide a platform for the popularization of science by normal scientists, and not by city madmen and scammers. As for the visitor, who is this forum for??
Here’s what the official website will tell us about the event:
Who is this Forum for??
For those who prefer biology to theology For those who understand that conspiracy theories and critical thinking are not the same thing For those who go to a lecture as if they were going to a rock concert! For those wondering: Are Flat Earthers Serious?? For those who are tired of explaining to mom/grandfather/friends that homeopathy doesn’t work, GMOs are safe, and Americans were on the moon. For those who can be helped by the power of science… but also for those who are the power of science!
And now it comes to the northern capital again. The event itself took place in the St. Petersburg hotel building directly opposite the Aurora.
This is what Chaplin Hall looks like on the first floor and..
I arrived a little later and there were more people, so I immediately went to the registration desks, where they tied me a bracelet, gave me a badge and a program.
But it’s on the right hand side of the stairs. The left is much more interesting. I was in no hurry to get to the hall.
Near the stairs there is an exhibition “17 skulls and a tooth”, about which Stanislav Drobyshevsky talks.
There was still more than half an hour of the forum before the opening of the forum, so there weren’t many people yet and there was an opportunity to take photos at point-blank range. This is not so much a lecture as a conversation with visitors and answers to questions. It’s a pleasure to listen to him:
“In our line,” he points to the skulls, “the temporal line has either weakened or disappeared completely.”. You can feel it yourself, you can see how it goes. “Well, there is something like that,” answers the girl next to him. – Well, you’re not a paranthropus, there is “something”, but you can see it from the outside.
I went out to buy coffee and a pie at speculative prices, so I lost the thread of the conversation. I remember how an impressionable visitor was outraged by chimpanzee cannibalism. And people, meanwhile, kept coming and coming, and when I returned 10 minutes later it was no longer possible to get through to the lecturer.
And a little to https://richprizecasino.uk/mobile-app/ the left, closer to the windows, there are counters with popular science books.
These were mostly natural science books, which is contraindicated for me, as a humanist. But there were also several historical.
I succumbed to the general hype and first bought a couple about “pseudo-science” and “The Unknown History of Our Ancestors”.
And towards evening I decided to take two volumes of Drobyshevsky’s “The Getting Link”, which, if I heard correctly, he wrote on the subway, but this is not certain. They are now standing on the shelf and waiting in the wings. One day I’ll decide to read them. But, what’s important, I managed to get an autograph. Or rather, he asked me to write why this book is worth reading.
“Read books – don’t repeat the mistakes of your ancestors and evolve”.
I leafed through them, enjoyed the view of Aurora from the window and headed towards the hall, where preparations were still in full swing, and people were just beginning to take their seats.
And, of course, the first person I noticed was Penguinopithecus, the “gray eminence” of the forum, sitting in the chair next to Alexander Sokolov. This is how he spent the entire Forum, listening carefully to respected speakers. By following the link you can read the history of the appearance of this seemingly disappeared human ancestor. And in less than a year it has become a real symbol of the event. It was on his behalf that the voice invited everyone to enter the hall.
The hall is full and it’s time to start.
Opening the forum, Alexander Sokolov noted: “Today there will be topics that you have been waiting for and fearing: the global flood (the myth of the flood allegedly 200 years ago), flat Earth, lunar scam, Great Tartary”. During the day, ten scientists will speak at the forum – candidates of historical sciences, physical and mathematical sciences, biological sciences and others.".
“People want to know where we come from, they want to know about language, about their past, about the Universe… and how society learns about the achievements of scientists? Popularization of science is not a whim, but the most important intangible function and responsibility of the scientific community in relation to humanity. If scientists do not share their knowledge with society, why does society fund them??», — Sokolov said in his opening remarks.
Alexander Sokolov asked to raise the hands of those spectators who came to the scientific and educational event for the first time. Here’s a get-together for you. I was among them.
The first report was dedicated to the Economics of the Pyramids. As a result, it turned out that default was not a problem for Ancient Egypt, taxes were collected in kind, and the Pyramids were built by people and not aliens. After the speech, those interested could ask questions, and for the best question, the organizers gave a book, and the speaker received penguinopithecus figurines and a cupcake.
As it turned out, there was no flood 200 years ago, and the arguments of crazy people in the spirit of “few trees are older than 200 years” and “why in cities there is such a large cultural layer and sometimes higher than the windows” have the most common explanations.
Oleg Sokolov spoke next and smashed common myths about knights.
Judging by the noise of applause, his performance can be considered the most striking and memorable. Of course, his artistry and emotionality played a role here. Well, he captivated the audience with the phrase:
— You called me one of the founders of the military reconstruction movement in Russia. I am the founder of this movement. This is like saying that Peter I is one of the founders of St. Petersburg.
After this there would be a break during which you could take pictures with the knights.
And to the left of the entrance you could buy souvenirs with the symbols of the forum and the Anthropogynesis website.
As they joked about Darwin’s figurine always falling off the table, depending on the lesson he can be Darwin, Tolstoy or Mendeleev.
In the hall, Sokolov signed his books, and Drobyshevsky, in the same place, continued to talk about the skulls and answer questions.
The report was inspired by the video of Danila the Cross, where he, as he later said, joked about the absence of Iga. This can be considered one of the pranks that got out of control. Too many people took it seriously. But the report itself did not arouse interest, since all the arguments were already familiar. And some noteworthy ones were not mentioned. However, the fact that this problem exists at all speaks of serious problems in education. Well, there was a “yoke”, if anyone doubted.
I missed the essence of Panchin’s report at an early stage, but I remembered the question “is it possible to GMO at home”, for which the author received a book from the speaker. The main thing is not to be afraid of GMOs.
After the break, a 5-minute cartoon about Homo naledi was shown, and the full version of the animated film is expected to be released in April this year. Well, after him Stanislav Drobyshevsky performed, and as the name suggests, they clearly didn’t shine. I was glad that Drobyshevsky is against the IQ test, since it only tests a person’s mathematical skills.
But the next report raised many questions. It all started in good faith with a seemingly recognition of the existence of “scientific truth” and was opposed to the “opinion of an amateur”.
He began by contrasting truth with opinion, and reduced everything to the contrast of the opinion of a specialist with the opinion of an amateur and the competition of theories. The longer I listened, and from the murmurs in the neighboring rows, the clearer it became – the speaker was saying something completely wrong and had nothing to do with science. If we think about it this way, then it turns out that objects are not attracted to the earth at all or are attracted only if we have a theory that explains it and each time the reasons for which they are attracted are different. And this is subjective idealism, or as it is called today, postmodernism, which also does not disdain the denial of the surrounding reality.
It turns out that instead of studying the essence of phenomena, knowledge of the objective laws of development of the material world, Sergeev suggests concentrating on one’s sensations, they say, these sensations are the real state of affairs, and by changing sensations, one can change this real state of affairs. If there is no truth, then there is no world around us, which is reflected in scientific theories, and our opinions/feelings exist outside of it. It’s like saying that thought exists without a brain. Well, to each his own. And this person is responsible in the Russian Academy of Sciences for the fight against pseudoscience.
Any hoaxer and freak would hug him like a brother. The first question from the audience was asked by Panchin with a hint that if homeopaths occupy the Ministry of Health and Science, then their theory will become correct. Oleg Sokolov was absolutely correct in pointing out that “practice is the criterion of truth,” and what he said has a dubious relationship to science. To which Sergeev again noted that there is no truth, but only “competition of ideas”. This ended the questions from the audience, and the speaker invited the audience to vote for the best question. Oleg Sokolov won by a noticeable margin.
After such a tense discussion, a break was needed and it came right on schedule.
Evening had already come, but there were no fewer people. Let me remind you that the event had been going on for more than 8 hours. Many took pictures and took autographs from the speakers or listened to Drobyshevsky about skulls, while others refueled with coffee. Just at that moment I bought his books and got his autograph. Well, the last two reports were ahead of us – some of the most important on the form on the most pressing topics, but first things first.
But for half an hour the speaker convinced the audience that the Americans flew to the moon in 1969, and the purchase of our RD-180 engines did not replace their own engines, they were just more than 2 times more expensive.
The lecture was summed up later by Alexander Sokolov (or maybe not him) in the Anthropogenesis group: If someone thinks that “Scientists against Myths” is a “sermon for the converted” – look at these photographs. Those who doubt that the Americans were on the Moon raised their hands. Photos at the beginning and end of Vitaly Egorov’s speech “Exposing the Moon Conspiracy” on February 11. There is dynamics? )