Blue Collar Scientist

Michael Stackpole came to my attention in the late 1980’s when I read of some of his research that debunked claims that role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons led to involvement in Satanic cults and killings. The research was eventually compiled into The Pulling Report in 1990.

For some years now, Mike has been the Executive Director of the Arizona Skeptics. Every year he and his fellows in that group compile a list of predictions, some of them serious and some of them humorous, that are of the style of the annual predictions that so-called psychics make. Year in and year out, the organization comes up with more accurate predictions than the psychics, by wildly huge margins.

Although I follow the predictions every year, it was from his appearance on Skepticality some time ago that I learned more about some other things Mike does - namely, he goes toe-to-toe with the crazies on radio shows, representing skepticism and rational thinking in the mass media, where the cards are stacked most strongly against you. After doing a bit of research last November, I put Mike on my list of people who needed to have an asteroid named after him.

So there I was at TAM 5.5 last January, eating dinner with a bunch of complete strangers, when Mike walks in and sits down next to me. Nobody else at the table seemed to have “made” him, so I brought up the Pulling Report and said something that probably sounded sycophantic. Mike and I later waxed nostalgic in the hotel bar - which contained an original Star Wars poster - and I ended up having lunch with him and a bunch of other great people on the last day of the conference. The whole time I’m sitting there thinking how much I’d love to spill the beans that I’d just written a proposal to name an asteroid after him - but couldn’t, because the process is supposed to be secret.

The citation I submitted for Mike reads:

Michael Stackpole (b. 1957) is a prolific and popular science fiction author, and is a popular advocate for science and rational thinking through media appearances, public speaking, and writing.