Nisan comments on Open Thread June 2010, Part 2 - Less Wrong
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Interesting. It seems that learning this art (1) gives you a power and (2) makes you vulnerable to it.
There may be a correlation between studying martial arts and vulnerability to techniques which can be modeled well by "chi." But I have tried the striking sequences successfully on capoeristas and catch wrestlers, and the light but effective pushes on my non-martially-trained brother after showing him Wu-style pushing hands for a minute or two.
That suggests an experiment. Anyone see any flaws in the following?
I like the idea of scientifically testing internal arts; and your idea is certainly more rigorous than TV series attempting to approach martial arts "scientifically" like Mind, Body, and Kickass Moves. Unfortunately, the only one of those I can think of which is both (1) explainable in words and pictures to a precise enough degree that "chi"-type theories could constrain expectations, and (2) has an unambiguous result when done correctly which varies qualitatively from an incorrect attempt is the knockout series of hits, which raises both ethical and practical concerns.
I would classify the other two as tacit knowledge--they require a little bit of instruction on the counterintuitive parts; then a lot of practice which I can't think of a good way to fake.
Note that I would be completely astonished if there weren't a perfectly normal explanation for any of these feats; but deriving methods for them from first principles of biomechanics and cognitive science would take a lot longer than studying with a good teacher who works with the "chi" model.
The problem is that a positive result would only show that a specific sequence of attacks worked well. It wouldn't show that "chi" or other unusual models were required to explain it; there could be perfectly normal explanations for why a series of attacks was effective.
That's why I suggested writing down both techniques which should work according to the model and techniques which should not work according to the model.
It's conceivable that imagining chi is the best (or at least a very good) way of being able to do subtle attacks.