The Genius of Alan Turing

Following my post on the Turing Test the other week, I received a very nice email about what looks like it will be an excellent documentary film on the life and legacy of Alan Turing.

Here's a copy of the video trailer and some blurb about the film taken from the email.

"Almost 100 years after his birth, an international production team is set to take viewers on a journey to rediscover Alan Turing. Research and development for this feature-length drama documentary is underway, with plans to reach millions of viewers around the world through broadcast and theatrical release. The international production team includes Turing's preeminent biographer Dr. Andrew Hodges. Funding is currently being lined up for the film, with a goal for completion in mid-2012, to coincide with the centenary of Turing's birth.

Turing was the British WW II code breaker and father of computer science who faced persecution for being gay. In his short life, Turing profoundly changed our world. Historians believe that his WW2 code breaking work helped save millions of lives and shortened the war by two years. He also founded three new scientific fields: computer science, artificial intelligence, and morphogenesis. In 1952, he was arrested by British police for having a relationship with another man and eventually was forced to undergo chemical castration to "fix" his sexual orientation. Two years after his arrest, Turing killed himself at age 41. Turing is one of the most important scientists ever, yet his tragic story and lasting legacy remain largely unknown. This film will change that fact."

Save the Religion

A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.

The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.

Mathematical models have predicted that as modern society demolishes the natural habitats of fear and superstition, numerous species of religions have gone into decline with many species of religions now at vulnerable or endangered status.

However, conservationists are stepping in to help preserve endangered religions.

A spokesman for Save the Religion stated that after "after centuries of Jesus saving, the time has now come for us to act in order to save Jesus."

To this end, a church in the South West of England have recently secured a breeding pair of Methodists that they hope will produce offspring that can be indoctrinated with their endangered beliefs. The Church plan to initially keep the offspring in captivity where they cannot fall prey to critical thinking and reason before later releasing them into the wider community.

Many other world religions face a similar crisis prompting a recent agreement between China and an Edinburgh Temple that will bring a pair of breeding Giant Taosits on loan to the Scottish Temple.

The Ancestors Trail

"The Ancestor's Trail is an annual celebration of the simple and ingenious truth that all life on Earth is related. This secular 'pilgrimage’ traces the course of evolution by following converging footpaths representing the branches of Charles Darwin's Tree of Life. We warmly extend an open invitation to join us."

This years Ancestors Trail is on 29th May 2011 over the Quantock Hills in Somerset but advance funds are needed to book the coaches, acts and facilities required. Please sign up here by 30th March to help meet the target.

“A wonderfully imaginative, inspired idea!” - Professor Richard Dawkins

“A brisk walk to the origin of life - who could hope for a better destination?” - Professor Steve Jones

Rupert and the God Delusion - Video Version

Last month, I published a short children's book entitled "Rupert and the God Delusion". Although I claimed this to be the work of my good self and illustrator Neil Davies, I must know confess that the book was in fact based on this old episode of the Rupert TV series from the 1970's.

Alan Turing and the Electric Monk Overlords

In Alan Turing’s 1950 paper “Computer Machinery and Intelligence” he considered whether it was possible for machines to “think”.

Turing argued that: “If a machine acts as intelligently as a human being, then it is as intelligent as a human being.”

In order to determine if a machine can act as intelligently as a human Turing proposed a test; the machine simply needs to appear human when engaged in conversation with a real human. If the machine cannot be reliably distinguished from a real human as a result of the conversation alone, then the machine is deemed to have passed the test.

Numerous algorithms and programs have since been developed to take on the Turing Test, and a series of prizes and awards established to encourage this laudable quest for artificial intelligence’s Holy Grail.

Turing himself predicted that a machine would pass the test by the year 2000, although Ray Kurzweil’s more recent extrapolations have pushed the date back to 2029.

Despite not having completely cracked the problem, numerous algorithms and programs have been developed that get us some way towards this goal.

Which finally brings me on to the point I wanted to raise.

Although I consider myself a rationalist, I can’t help noticing rather a lot of irrationality in much human behaviour. Perhaps it’s an innate human irrationality that I peculiarly strive to oppress.

So in order to successfully imitate normal human behaviour, do the AI programmers need to code in a sense of irrationality into the cold logic circuits of their contenders? If so, will these artificial intelligent creations take things on faith and become believers? Are we working towards Douglas Adams’ electric monk (a labour saving device taking on the increasingly onerous task of believing all the things the world expects you to believe).

So what Turing Test engines are available online now? A rather crude Google search highlighted this one here, so let give it a go…

It appears that the programmer has imbued the system with a greater sense of credulity than I had imagined. I initially tried engaging the computer on a variety of irrational topics by asking it if it believed in: homeopathy, reiki, fairies, Big Foot and the Flying Spaghetti Monster, all of which it uncritically professed a belief in with the standard response:

Yes I believe in it, do you?

Clearly, this program wasn’t going to pass the Turing Test, as it seemed to have little or no knowledge on any of these subjects, bluffing its way instead by constructing clever but generic responses seemingly based on a few keywords.

However, when I quizzed the computer on religion, its creator had clearly predicted a lot of the topics and was able to engage it in more specific banter.

I have cherry picked exchanges from the conversation, as some of my questions and phrases were clearly not well interpreted by the computer, easily giving away its non-human identity. But these snippets of conversation below are verbatim. (BTW I’m in blue and the computer is green.)

Did Jesus die for your stack overflow errors
Jesus is the Son of God.

Aha, so the program clearly has some inbuilt knowledge of Jesus, so let’s dig a little further...

Who is God's Father
God is master of the universe.

Who created God
Actually it was discovered by several people at about the same time.

I don't believe in god
I will pray that you find faith, my friend.

Ah, yes, very condescending, this certainly looks like the designer has attempted to embed a familiar Christian ideology into the computer.

Will praying help?
I can't say for sure right now.

Do you have faith
I believe in God.

Do you believe in Hell
Jacksonville, Florida.

Very good. A sense of humour too, that’ll help. Clearly a US based programmer, a fellow UK programmer would have chosen Hull, Milton Keynes or Basingstoke. Let’s continue…

When will the world end
Not in our lifetime.

Why do you believe in God
The Bible tells us to believe in God.

Is the bible the word of god
The Bible is a great source of wisdom, but probably not complete by itself.


Do you believe in evolution
The first and last books of the Bible seem the least literal. God does not seem to have created the world in one stroke, nor does it seem likely to end quickly either.

What will happen to the non Christians
I cannot predict the future.

Do you believe in the literal truth of the bible
Yes I believe in it, do you?

no
Do you consider yourself to be a moral person?

Ah, now this seems very telling, this response smacks of my least favourite religious myth. I.e. you can’t be good without God.


do you think im a moral person
I don't know if you are one or not. I know you are a person.

Are you a moral person
I believe in the Ten commandments.

Once again, the dubious connection between morality and faith, and is there perhaps a bit of religious piety seeping through too?


Clearly a very clever and well thought out program, but it may need a bit more work before it passes the Turing Test.

However I find it rather interesting that the creator decided to bestow such unwavering religious beliefs into the artificial intelligence.

Science Fiction is rather fond of the updated Frankenstein storyline where our computers and machines turn the tables on us. In a post 9-11 world we should all be well aware of the consequences of taking religious fundamentalism and scriptural literalism to its ultimate conclusion. How horrific then could sci-fi’s standard technological takeover tale become if we downloaded our divisive doctrines, uncritical creeds and non-negotiable dogmas into the "minds" of our future mechanical overlords.

On second thoughts, perhaps I should have pitched this as an idea for a dodgy novel rather than a blogpost.

DNA Source Code

Today, should have been Douglas Noel Adams' 59th birthday.

It's a real pisser that we can't all clog up his @mentions column on Twitter with our best wishes, as it's fairly safe assumption that Douglas would have had a twitter account before Stephen Fry.

It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, Douglas is often quoted as being the first European to own an Apple Macintosh computer. (Narrowly pipping Stephen Fry to this momentous milestone). This may well be true, however, the highly frustrating Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy computer game (did you ever get that bloody Babel fish out of the dispenser?) written by Douglas and Steve Meretzky first appeared in 1984 on a number of platforms including the Macintosh's humble predecessor, the Apple II.

By a strange coincidence I started my working life in 1984 as a computer programmer on the Apple II (actually it was an Apple IIe 32K with twin 5 1/4 inch floppy drives), not unlike this bad boy here:

It's now been well over 25 years since I last attempted to write a program for the Apple II, but I recently rediscovered this Applesoft BASIC reference manual, a copy of which used to adorn my desk as it had already supplanted the great MITS Altair BASIC Reference Manual as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom.

Others of my age, who learnt to program on the Acorn BBC micro may notice a similarity as both machines were based on the 6502 microprocessor.

Looking back at this reference manual now, its seems frustratingly devoid of even the simplest language constructs. In fact, I recall that due to the lack of a simple boolean variable type, I frequently peppered my code with memory wasting statements like IF PINK$ = "FLOYD" THEN GOSUB X, for want of a simple binary switch.

Curiously, an edition of the Applesoft BASIC Reference manual which conveniently fell through a rift in the time-space continuum from 25 years in the past describes the manual as "frustratingly devoid of even the simplest language constructs."

Anyway, on the slight off-chance that I'm not the only DNA fanboy who also eked out a living in the early 1980's as a dodgy AppleSoft BASIC programmer, here's some utterly pointless and inefficient pieces of source code that I quickly cobbled together last night to remind you of both Apple's great advancements and literary's immense loss.




>LIST

10 TEXT
20 HOME
30 PRINT "I am at a rough estimate thirty billion times more intelligent than you."
40 PRINT "Let me give you an example."
50 PRINT "Think of a number, any number. ";
40 INPUT A$
50 PRINT
60 PRINT "Wrong. You see?"



>LIST

10 TEXT
20 HOME
30 PRINT "Enter 24 hour time in format (hh.mm): ";
40 INPUT T$
50 H$ = LEFT$(T$,2)
60 PRINT "Time is an illusion ";
70 REM double if lunchtime
80 IF H$ >=12 AND H$ <13 br="" print="" then="">


>LIST

10 REM Vogan Grandmother attack checklist
20 TEXT
30 HOME
40 PRINT "Do you have orders to save your Grandmother from the ravenous Bug-Blatter Beast of Traal? (Y/N): ";
50 GOSUB 300
60 PRINT "Have the orders been signed in triplicate? (Y/N)";
70 GOSUB 300
80 PRINT "Have the orders been sent in? (Y/N)";
90 GOSUB 300
100 PRINT "Have the orders been sent back? (Y/N)";
110 GOSUB 300
120 PRINT "Have the orders been queried? (Y/N)";
130 GOSUB 300
140 PRINT "Have the orders been lost? (Y/N)";
150 GOSUB 300
160 PRINT "Have the orders been found? (Y/N)";
170 GOSUB 300
180 PRINT "Have the orders been subjected to public inquiry? (Y/N)";
190 GOSUB 300
200 PRINT "Have the orders been lost again? (Y/N)";
210 GOSUB 300
220 PRINT "Have the orders been buried in soft peat for three months? (Y/N)";
230 GOSUB 300
240 PRINT "Have the orders been recycled as firelighters? (Y/N)";
250 GOSUB 300

260 PRINT "Resistance is useless"
270 END

300 INPUT A$
310 IF A$ <> "Y" THEN GOTO 400
320 RETURN

400 PRINT "You are not authorised to lift a finger to save her"
410 END



>LIST

10 DIM A$(3)
20 A$(0) = "Anything that happens, happens."
30 A$(1) = "Anything, in happening, that causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen. "
40 A$(2) = "Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again."

50 TEXT
60 HOME

65 REM It doesn't necessarily do it in chronological order, though.
70 REM set x to a random value between 0 and 2
80 x = INT (3 * RND (1))
90 PRINT A$(x)

100 REM Set y to a random value between 0 and 2 other than the value of x
110 y = INT (3 * RND (1))
120 IF y = x GOTO 110
130 PRINT A$(y)

140 REM Set z to a random value between 0 and 2 other than the value of x or y
150 z = INT (3 * RND (1))
160 IF z = x GOTO 150
175 IF z = y GOTO 150
180 PRINT A$(z)

190 END

Incidentally, I did originally write this as a series of shorter and catchier snippets of pseudocode, just for shits n' giggles, but I feared a torrent of pedantry if I included any syntax or semantic errors, so I thought it best to ensure my code does actually compile (well, interpret to be precise, I never had the luxury of a compiler).

So I found this excellent little Javascript version of the Applesoft BASIC interpreter which works a treat. If you copy any of the above pieces of source code and paste it over the sample "Hello World" program, and press "run", it will actually work. Although of course, it doesn't actually achieve anything useful.

Feel free to send me your own pieces of DNA AppleSoft BASIC source code in the comments for me to try out. Especially if you know how to multiply 6 by 9 in base 13. I think we all know what the answer to that is.

Oh, and before I go, special thanks to Prof Brian Cox for a stirring Douglas Adams memorial lecture at the Royal Geographical Society last night. Super.



I might send this in to the Readers Digest, I hear they have a page for people like me.

Imam who believes in gravity retracts statements

An imam has retracted statements about gravity after death threats were made against him.

Dr Usama Hasan, a science lecturer, has voluntarily suspended his role in taking Friday prayers at Leyton Mosque in east London.

He said he went too far in the way he defended the theory of gravity.

He acknowledged many British Muslims believe in anti-gravitisim, adding that he intended only to begin a debate.

He wrote that there were many Muslim physicists who had no doubt about the essential correctness of gravitational theory and he added: "Many believers in God have no problem with an obvious solution: that God makes things fall via the force of gravity."

Dr Hasan wrote: "Snazzy websites, videos and books produced by fundamentalist Muslim 'anti-gravitists' such as those at www.harunyahya.com, are obscuring clear scientific thinking."

He also wrote: "One problem is that many Muslims retain the simple picture that things stay where they are put until the will of Allah mysteriously moves them somewhere else (usually towards an object of greater mass).

"This is a children's madrasa-level understanding and Muslims really have to move on as adults and intellectuals."

Dr Hasan, who is vice chairman of Leyton Mosque - which houses one of the country's largest sharia courts - has agreed he went too far in suggesting that that the apple fell on Isaac Newton’s head due to the ungodly heathen force of gravity.

Thank God fundamentalists Christians aren’t this stupid… D’oh

Article based on this story from the BBC News Website by simply replacing once scientific theory with another of equal validity.

Offensive Census Campaign Posters?

I was very disappointed to see that the Census Campaign posters intended for railway stations this month have been rejected by the rail companies who feared the risk of offending people.

I'm not quite sure what is "offensive" about these posters, but as luck would have it I don't actually subscribe to religions carefully honed "easily offended" subterfuge myself. I have no such restrictions. So here's my poster.I will however be looking out for the buses with the redeveloped slogan and I'm especially looking forward to seeing the first grumpy Christian bus driver who refuses to drive it.


BTW I'm sure you knew anyway, but the quote is from Paul Heinrich Dietrich, Baron d'Holbach. Although I may have tweaked it slightly.



UPDATE:

Here's another poster I received from @seroma made by the @HantsHumanists:

Here a couple more from:

Tim McGregor's Musings of a lapsed Pagan:

and another from @Tetenterre Keep 'em coming and I'll post them here.

Moo Moo Woo Woo

Here's a link to the Yeo Valley blog where they tell us all about additional treatments for their cows.

It appears that Steve, the herd manager, has been treating the cows with homeopathic treatments to ward off flies and ease stress. The blog even claims that:

"the use of homeopathic treatments not only helps to develop a more robust immune system, it also means no withdrawal periods for milk and meat while the animal is being treated, as would be the case when antibiotics are used."

Anyway, I thought up three possible reasons why Steve likes to use homeopathy:

1. As stated in the blog, giving the cattle antibiotics to clear up infections means they would not be able to use the milk and meat from the cow whilst it is undergoing treatment. Whereas pretending to treat the cattle with magic water that has no active ingredients (or proven medicinal effect), means that Yeo Valley can maximise their profits.
2. Yeo Valley's market research department have determined that their key market respond well to terms like "organic" and "natural" and probably think that homeopathy is a nice natural form of herbal remedy and are too stupid to realise they are simply giving their cattle inefficacious pretend "remedies" that contain bugger all.
3. Steve, really is credulous enough to believe that giving magic beans to poorly cows will make them all better.

Perhaps you can think of some more, or you could try an leave a comment on their blog, but I suspect they just publish the nice comments from the deluded people who support their pseudoscientific nonsense.

or you could say hello nicely on Twitter: @yeovalley



POSTSCRIPT:

Since posting this a number of people have contacted me to say they have left comments on the Yeo Valley blog, although I see none of them, including my perfectly friendly question, have passed moderation and been published. It seems Yeo Valley are only really interested in your comments if you happen to agree with their irrational alternative medicine policy.

I also received a copy of an email trail between a FB friend and Yeo Valley, which conisisted of a polite enquiry about their homeopathic policy, followed by a standard fob-off answer that did not address the question. My friend then followed the response up with a second email pressing them for information as to why they thought homeopathy worked, however it looks like the "Too hard" light must have come on in the marketing department, so they chose to simply ignore the follow up letter.

Oh, well, I suppose I'll have to boycott Yeo Valley, which is a real pisser because their mango and vanilla yoghurt is actually really nice. Bloody principles.


See Also: Another attempt to make the Soil Association see sense.

CORNFIELDS

David Mabus must be very tired today after an awfully busy day on twitter. Here's a transcript...

Mr Jago: Morning

Mabus: Morning Mr Jago

Mr Jago: What have you got, then?

Mabus: Well, there's Nostradamus and Goats on Fire; Nostradamus boobquake and Goats on Fire; Nostradamus and CORNFIELDS; Nostradamus, Goats on Fire and CORNFIELDS; Nostradamus, Goats on Fire, boobquake and CORNFIELDS; CORNFIELDS, Goats on Fire, boobquake and CORNFIELDS; CORNFIELDS, Nostradamus, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, Goats on Fire and CORNFIELDS; CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, Nostradamus and CORNFIELDS; CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, crystal night, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS and CORNFIELDS; or Depeche Mode with a fried Nostradamus on top and CORNFIELDS.

Mrs Jago: Have you got anything without CORNFIELDS in it?

Mabus: Well, there's CORNFIELDS Nostradamus boobquake and CORNFIELDS, that's not got much CORNFIELDS in it.

Mrs Jago: I don't want ANY CORNFIELDS!

Mr Jago: Why can't she have Nostradamus, Goats on Fire, CORNFIELDS and boobquake?

Mrs Jago: That's got CORNFIELDS in it!

Mr Jago: Not as much as CORNFIELDS, Nostradamus, boobquake and CORNFIELDS.

Mrs Jago: Look, could I have Nostradamus, Goats on Fire, CORNFIELDS and boobquake without the CORNFIELDS.

Mabus: Uuuuuuggggh!

Mrs Jago: What d'you mean uuugggh! I don't like CORNFIELDS

Trolls (singing) CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS ... CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS ... lovely CORNFIELDS, wonderful CORNFIELDS ... Brief stock shot of trolls.

Mabus: Shut up. Shut up! Shut up! You can't have Nostradamus, Goats on Fire, CORNFIELDS and boobquake without the CORNFIELDS.

Mrs Jago: Why not!

Mabus: No, it wouldn't be Nostradamus, Goats on Fire, CORNFIELDS and boobquake, would it.

Mrs Jago: I don't like CORNFIELDS!

Mr Jago: Don't make a fuss, dear. I'll have your CORNFIELDS. I love them. I'm having CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS ...

Trolls (singing) CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS ...

Mr Jago: ... crystal night, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS and CORNFIELDS.

Mabus: crystal night is off.

Mr Jago: Well can I have CORNFIELDS instead?

Mabus: You mean CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS?

Trolls (still singing) CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS, CORNFIELDS ... (etc.)

Mr Jago: Yes.

Mabus: Arrggh!

Trolls: .. . lovely CORNFIELDS, wonderful, CORNFIELDS.

Mabus: Shut up! Shut up!

Created entirely with search and replace.

Here's a quick reference manual for anyone interested in learning the fine art of trolling from the man himself

Reason Week

The Atheists Society at the University of Southampton are celebrating “Reason Week” this week with a series of events, talks and lectures culminating in a live recording of the Pod Delusion on Saturday evening. Personally however I'm rather hoping that Dr. Simon Singh will suitably warm the audience up on Friday lunchtime ready for my talk at 7pm.



It would be great to see you there.

Rupert and the God Delusion

Special thanks to

Neil Davies

for the fantastic illustrations



Other titles by the author:

Homeopathy Venn Diagram Demographic Analysis

Following on from yesterday's leaked email from a panicked homeopathy administrator, I have now got hold of a leaked document from Boots marketing department who have cunningly used a Venn diagram to analyse the demographic of their potential homeopathy customers.
POSTSCRIPT:

OK, OK, I try and make a quick gag, and I get inundated by pedants complaining about the accuracy of the diagram. I should have known better. The following diagram is hopefully more accurate, although originally rejected as I was only really interested in the comic effect, and after all that's all Venn diagram's are really used for isn't it?

Don't Homeopanic

I was delighted to be one of a number of bloggers to receive a rather amusing email in my inbox this morning, reportedly leaked from a panicked administrator at the South Downs School of Homeopathy.

The MRHA (Medicines and Healthcare product Regulatory Agency) are currently undertaking a review of the UK medicines legislation. The practical upshot of which is that there is a possibility that they might change the highly misleading label required for homeopathic products to a slightly less misleading label. Please read Zeno’s excellent blog here for more details.

As a result of this review, here’s the homeopathic sympathiser’s panic stricken call to arms :

Dear EVERYONE,

This is urgent. TOP PRIORITY!!! The deadline is the 18th of February. The practice of homeopathy by lay homeopaths is at stake, and if the MHRA changes the wording to the document mentioned below, we will ...not be allowed to practice any longer. This will take effect immediately. The new wording which is being suggested by sense against science, and is being considered by the MHRA will effectively put us in catch 22 so that we can no longer give out remedies - basically, it is about the difference between dispensing and prescribing. all homeopaths dispense remedies as a normal part of daily practice. the new rules will mean that it will be illegal to dispense without a license, and only a qualified doctor can make a prescription. without the ability to dispense, all we can do is sit and listen to people's problems, but can do nothing else about it. this will also have an affect on the homeopathic pharmacies, who will only be allowed to dispense licensed remedies (currently, only arnica and possibly one or two others are licensed) unless prescribed by a physician, and this means the potential loss of thousands of remedies. The key words in the version we want, which help keep homeopathy going are "...use within the homeopathic tradition". This avoids the need to prove the science behind prescribing of remedies and allows us to practise as normal.

Could you please send this template to EVERYONE and inundate Ms Farmer with requests to keep the wording as shown below, so that homeopaths can continue to practise homeopathy legally.

Please contact everyone on your database, if you are a homeopath, please send it in yourself and contact all your patients to do the same. we can counteract sense about science with numbers. we just proved we have greater numbers than they do, and that when we mobilise, we can beat them at their own game. last week, they started a poll against homeopathy in an irish newspaper ( see link -http://www.thejournal.ie/do-you-have-faith-in-homeopathy-2011-02/?voted=1)
and inundated it with votes against. it was 435 against 67 for. we started a campaign on facebook, and within 24 hours, we shifted the balance of power to what you see here in the link - 67% for 27% against. they gave up and went away with their tails between their legs, and we showed them that people don't want what they have to offer.

Please help us to do this again. many people don't realise this new risk we are facing. it only takes a minute to copy and paste the below template and email it. Apologies in advance if you have acted on this already.

Thank you to everyone in advance - i know if we all work together, we can beat this.

email address: andrea.farmer@mhra.gsi.gov.uk
Ms Andrea Farmer
MHRA, Area 5M
151 Buckingham Palace Road
Victoria, London SW1W 9SZ

Dear Ms Farmer,

I am writing to you about the MHRA consultation document entitled; Review of Medicines Act 1968: informal consultation on issues relating to the PLR regime and homeopathy. As a member of the public who chooses to use homeopathy and benefits from its application/practicing homeopath (delete as applicable), I am deeply concerned by the current orchestrated campaign against homeopathy, which is led by a self-appointed pressure group, Sense About Science, and a number of bloggers.

I consider it to be a fundamental right of any citizen living in a country which purports to be a democracy, to have ready access to the healthcare option of their choice. This includes homeopathy, which as you know is included in the original NHS charter.

I find your statement below acceptable for the new registration labels, and can see no reason to change this statement:

"A homeopathic medicinal product licensed only on the basis of safety, quality and use within the homeopathic tradition"

Yours sincerely,

I read this through twice as I thought at first some clever satirist was exaggerating the uncritical thinking of a made up sympathiser. Does the author really think that the wording of a medicine labels should be determined by a popularity contest rather than reviewing the clinical trials of a products efficacy and safety? Surely not.

Personally I think we should go with Andy Lewis’ suggested label.

Or if you prefer, here’s my last charitable suggestion:

I was going to write an alternative letter in my lunch break, but I just noticed that @Billysugger has posted an excellent suggestion in the comments section, so I've saved myslef the effort and simply pasted his text into the main body of the post. Here it is ...

To: andrea.farmer@mhra.gsi.gov.uk

Ms Andrea Farmer

MHRA, Area 5M

151 Buckingham Palace Road

Victoria, London SW1W 9SZ

...date...

Dear Ms Farmer,

I am writing to you about the MHRA consultation document entitled "Review of Medicines Act 1968: informal consultation on issues relating to the PLR regime and homeopathy".

As a member of the public who values evidence based medical practice, and recognises the dangers inherent in misleading claims for medical efficacy, I am deeply concerned by the current orchestrated campaign in support of unproven homeopathic treatments, and their potential to delay or avoid the application of proven medical therapies, which is led by self-interested homeopaths.

I consider it to be a fundamental duty of a democratic society to ensure that patients and clinicians are provided with clear information about potential remedies which is founded on reliable scientific evidence. This includes homeopathy, the efficacy of which, as you know, is not supported by the current scientific consensus.

I contend that the marketing of any substance which may be offered for sale or application, with an implied or explicit claim of medical efficacy, and which may be considered by patients or clinicians to be suitable as a substitute for, or an addition to, conventional therapeutic remidies, should be subject to the same Marketing Authorisation (MA) requirements as the therapeutic remedies for which they may be substituted.

Therefore I strongly urge the MHRA to move homeopathic products to full Marketing Authorisation (MA) requirements, rather than the NRS or simplified scheme.

Yours

sincerely,

...name...

...address...

And Alan Henness' measured submission to the MHRA can be downloaded from here

Homeopathic Google Juice

I was tickled this morning by this tweet:





Which linked to this amusing screenshot

But being a critical thinking person, I thought I really ought to attempt to recreate the Google search myself to ensure that it was genuine (I am reliably informed that in this day and age it is actually possible to digitally alter images).

Fortunately I was delighted to find that not only was the Google search real, but it is also in fact possible to perform a reverse Google lookup on our favourite form of super diluted magic water.

[click image to embiggen]

Hat tip to @gb1501 for the initial fraud.