by Rigorous Intuition » Mon Jul 17, 2006 1:27 am
<!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.fourmilab.ch/rpkp/experiments/contents.html">Table of Contents</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.fourmilab.ch/rpkp/experiments/">Experiments Online</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> (<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Bell Curve, Clock Face, Pendulum</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->)<br><br><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.fourmilab.ch/rpkp/proposal.html">What's all this about?</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>0. Something to think about...</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>A complete stranger hands you a sealed envelope and asks you to choose an number between one and fifty. A bit puzzled, perhaps, you think for a moment and announce "twenty-eight". The stranger scribbles this in a notebook, tells you to open the envelope in two weeks, smiles, and disappears.<br><br>Two weeks later you open the envelope to find a piece of paper with "28" printed neatly in the centre. Your mind swims with possible explanations, including the possibility that it was merely a coincidence. But a few days later, the stranger reappears with another envelope, you choose another number, and the sequence of events repeats. How many times would this have to occur before you accepted that something VERY STRANGE INDEED was going on?<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>1. Basic Idea</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>The idea of the Project is to make use of recently established global computer networking facilities in order to explore the purported anomalous effect known as retropsychokinesis (from now on we shall refer to this as "RPK"). The existence of such an effect has such profound philosophical implications that, despite repeated and well-regulated demonstrations carried out for over 20 years, it has remained an obscure matter of parapsychological controversy. However, the emergence of the WWW has created an exciting new possibility.<br><br>Although attempts to create "online" interactive parapsychological experiments have already appeared on the WWW, these are in early stages of development and published results have not been extensive. These experiments are increasing awareness of the claims and methods of parapsychology research. But the collection of data for serious research purposes is obviously restricted, as subjects cannot be supervised, and the lack of control in the experiments jeopardises the credibility of any results obtained.<br><br>However, the "retrocausal" or reverse-time nature of RPK is such that problems of this nature can generally be overcome. The proposed experiment(s) would, in fact, bypass most of the usual obstacles which occur in parapsychological research. These include attracting and motivating appropriate subjects, the limitations on the number of subjects which can be tested in any reasonable length of time, the elimination of all possible fraud, and the difficulties subjects face in performing in unfamiliar laboratory settings or in the presence of sceptical observers. The difficulties in publicising and gaining acceptance for the results obtained has perhaps been the most significant obstacle. Experiments which yield significant results have generally been accepted by the "believers" and rejected by the sceptics as insufficiently well-regulated (a claim which is often justified, but which can never be overcome in the existing research format). However, this too could change, as we shall see.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>2. A Brief History of Retropsychokinesis Research</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>The more generally-defined effect known as psychokinesis (PK) has been studied extensively since the 1930's when J.B. Rhine (Duke University) began systematically testing claims that seemingly random events such as dice and coin throws are subject to subtle psychic influences. His succesor, Helmut Schmidt, increased the rigour and efficiency of these experiments by introducing an electronic random number generator which used subatomic decay processes in order to generate data of the most fundamentally "random" nature. One must keep in mind that the issue of randomness is a difficult one - the interpretation of probabilities, the seeming effectiveness of statistical methods, and the fundamental role which probabilities play in quantum mechanical models of objective reality are all problems closely related to this work. Schmidt went on to run experiments similar to the original ones (PK effects on electronically generated random data), the only diference being that the data was prerecorded (and, importantly, unobserved), rather than generated in "real time" as the experiments were carred out. Despite being extraordinarily counterintuitive, the results suggested strongly that unobserved random events which occured in the past are subject to psychokinetic influence - in other words, the human mind can in some (limited) sense "influence" or at least "select" the past.<br><br>Schmidt and others have spent many years repeating the experiments, refining the techniques, and gathering valuable data, despite the general lack of public awareness and academic acceptance which they have received. Various acausal models of reality, and appropriate modifications of quantum theory have been suggested in order to account for the phenomenon, yet many fundamental questions regarding the nature of time, consciousness and causality remain largely unanswered.<br><br>The Project has been in communication with Schmidt (now retired, but still active) for the past few months, and we have received letters and e-mail in which he describes the proposed experiment as "very reasonable and exciting". Although he admits to being only vaguely familiar with the more sophisticated applications of the Internet, he can be contacted via e-mail. He has provided the Project with a random number generator and continues to offer useful advice as it is needed. <br><br> <p></p><i></i>
