Dear Lee (and Eliezer):
Yeah, I, too, am skeptical about the "Face on Mars" stuff. But I'm *also* skeptical about (quasi-) dogmatic "skepticism" of the CSICOP variety. Now, having said *that*, let me hasten to add that I have the utmost respect for James Randi, and am personal acquaintances with Paul Kurtz (I did my J.D. at Buffalo, and I've visited with him several times). A proper, neo-Popperian stance is, admittedly, a kind of conservative skepticism about this sort of stuff, if only because, ultimately our best epistemological position is one of a mixture of contextualism and a weird (but workable!!) blend of Quine (coherence theory of truth) and Tarski (neo-"correspondence", semantic theory of truth).
I've perused Hoageland's book on the "Face", and found it interesting, but
not ultimately convincing. And I've checked out a few other sources (both
"pro" and "con"). I'm certainly not a "true believer" in the
"Face"-as-intelligent-artifact thesis. But I certainly don't rule out the
possibility. However, the evidence, coupled with the *context* of
science-today, bids us to be ultimately skeptical of this hypothesis. But
science-today is a (admittedly robust) set of (ultimately fallible)
concepts. New evidence and/or new, revised background hypotheses might tip
the thing in favor of an artifactual hypothesis regarding the "Face." I'm
**NOT**, however, holding my breath on this one! It can't be ruled-out,
however, except in the (important, and relevant) sense that it is no more
plausible (if as plausible) as less [literally] extra-ordinary hypotheses
concerning the "Face".
And, yes, I've probably been methodologico-psychologically corrupted by reading too much Feyerabend!! I really am sympathetic to Feyerabendian anarchism. Good thing my original intro to philosophy of science was Popper and Rom Harre's excellent *Principles of Scientific Thinking* (U. Chicago Press, 1970) (The latter book is HIGHLY recommended, BTW), otherwise, I'd be of the Feyerabendian "anything goes" persuasion (which I'm not, BTW).
Best regards to all!