The bridge ("A fact is just a fantasy, unless it can be checked") is more or less simply wrong.
I read that line as saying, "you should have evidence for an claim in order to believe it". Which makes me think of, for example, the "chocolate cake in the asteroid belt" claim where we don't believe the claim, because we have no evidence for it.
right, but it seems to strongly imply that "there is no chocolate cake in the asteroid belt" is a fantasy as well, since it cannot be checked.
Alt-rockers They Might Be Giants explain/advocate empiricism in a record aimed at young children.
No, it's not quite Bayesian. The bridge ("A fact is just a fantasy, unless it can be checked") is more or less simply wrong. Still, I find the fact that the Ancient Art of Rationality is getting play at all pretty exciting. What do you all think? And what can we do to get more rationalist -- or even proto-rationalist -- ideas to youngsters?