king@Kestrel.ARPA (06/28/85)
To distinguish the two, we must make sure that all experimental subjects are unconcious during the generation of the random numbers. If we don't, and with hackers' hours there is little chance of finding such a time, apparent precognition could be the result of TK. The appropriate significance level should be the N'th root of 0.95, where N is the number of participants. This last objection is one I take seriously, and as far as I can see it is uniformly not followed by parapsychology workers.
markb@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Mark Biggar) (07/01/85)
In article <334@sri-arpa.ARPA> king@Kestrel.ARPA writes: >To distinguish the two, we must make sure that all experimental >subjects are unconcious during the generation of the random numbers. >If we don't, and with hackers' hours there is little chance of finding >such a time, apparent precognition could be the result of TK. > >The appropriate significance level should be the N'th root of 0.95, >where N is the number of participants. This last objection is one I >take seriously, and as far as I can see it is uniformly not followed by >parapsychology workers. First, I think you wanted telepathy (reading minds) not telekinesis (moving things with just the force of your mind). Telling precognition from telepathy is not a problem, as in a real precognition experment, you must require that all the guesses be submitted BEFORE the random numbers are generated. If you generate the numbers first then there is no "pre" to the cognition. The real problem with pregenerated numbers is telling telepathy (reading the mind of the person generating the numbers) apart from clairvoyance ("seeing" the numbers from a distance). If you generate the numbers without looking at them (say onto a magtape), get the guesses and compare, then you are looking for clairvoyance. If you generate the numbers in your head (quite a feet for 10*50 digits (I think that's the number proposed)) but don't write them down, then you are looking for telepathy. If you both know the numbers and write them down, then you can't tell telepathy from clairvoyance. Mark Biggar {allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,akgua,sdcsvax}!sdcrdcf!markb