The thing that we call consciousness is a “hard problem” in certain angles. There have been efforts to define it variously and the definitions have left a lot to be desired. Anyway people are sure that there is such a thing in existence. Certain of these enthusiasts have ventured into the very tricky realm of the paranormal and are avidly conducting experiments to prove that the human mind can influence the past.
No, no you don’t have to look at me like that. I am not the culprit. These experiments have been going on for quite some time in the cyber world or at least on the internet. Most of you would be familiar with the ‘retro’less psycho kinesis. It was studied by those who are interested in the paranormal for a century at least. In ‘retro’ the effort is to influence the past. If it can be achievable and can be scientifically proved it could shake the scientific world to its foundations.
Well is it possible to alter the past or select it as they say?
Some interesting characters say that it’s possible for us to influence the past events on the basis of the data from these experiments. The idea is to try to influence randomly generated data from an electronic random number generator. The data is pre recorded so that it can’t be influenced in any way.
The generator supposedly creates an even stream of binary numbers. We can’t predict the outcome while it is on. It is like a coin flip, the product at a given point would either be zero or one. As I said in the case of experiments these are pre recorded and forwarded to the subject in a file. He or she would try to influence the stream of data with the aid of visual displays. If any notable deviations in the number of binary data (more ones than when it was recorded) and if the result is consistent over a period of time and with many participants it would be considered a result above chance.
The experimenters have selected the internet as the stage for their studies. This has many advantages over a controlled experiment. It eliminates the laboratory from the scene and allows the subjects to perform in the quite of their homes and at their leisure. Every participant would be given a file containing randomly generated data and the site carrying out the experiment would keep a copy of the data with the name of the subject on it. The experiments would be monitored by the site and if the subject asks for it the complete log of the try would be made available to him or her.
In fact the complete record of the experiments conducted this far is available with the site and can be downloaded over a period of time (the data is large) by those who are interested to study the phenomenon for themselves.
They have three very good visual display tools on the site. The “Bell Curve” the “Clock face” and the “Pendulum”. In all the experiments you are given the task of mentally influencing them in a certain manner. I tried them all and was fascinated. I really thought that I was able to influence the stream to some extend (mere boast, you can’t tell it like that). Anyway the experiment has tremendous philosophical and scientific significance. I know that some thoroughly scientific individuals may pooh, pooh the attempt. There are worse fanatics in science than in religion.
The only thing I can say is that there is more to reality than we think of. If you want to participate or wish to learn more about the subject here is the link to the site.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/rpkp/
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