wasser@viking.DEC (John A. Wasser) (06/20/85)
> ...a series of lamps connected in an approximately circular shape, > and a ring counter... driven by a 'random' source. > When left alone, the next state (clockwise or counter-clockwise) had a > 'random' probability. Under the influence of some observers, it has been > 'shown' that they can 'will' the shift register to shift right or shift > left for a large number of trials. > I suspect that no matter WHO did the observing, the light will (for selected periods of time) make rather large excursions to the left and right. Even if the subject is told to make it go in a certain direction, he need only wait till the random chance comes up his way and say "There, I finaly got it to move in the right direction!". The only way for this experiment to be controlled is to give the subject a SPECIFIC time interval and RANDOM direction each trial and to have many trials. I'm willing to bet that the results will show no statistical significance. Remember Wasser's Law: +---------------------------------------------------------+ | Wasser's Law of Paranormal Demonstrations: Paranormal | | abilities are only demonstrable under conditions where | | they are indistinguishable from fakery. | +---------------------------------------------------------+ If the experiment is properly controlled, the PSI ability to influence the apparatus will fail. -John A. Wasser Work address: ARPAnet: WASSER%VIKING.DEC@decwrl.ARPA Usenet: {allegra,Shasta,decvax}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-viking!wasser Easynet: VIKING::WASSER
dsi@unccvax.UUCP (Dataspan Inc) (06/20/85)
I agree with you 100 %... I was just interested in the architecture of the alleged circuit that the subject could allegedly will. Regardless of the topology, and decent first-semester signal processing student could (or should) be able to show at least N ways that the circuit is indeed not a random state device... David .
davet@oakhill.UUCP (Dave Trissel) (06/22/85)
In article <2784@decwrl.UUCP> wasser@viking.DEC (John A. Wasser) writes: >> ...a series of lamps connected in an approximately circular shape, >> and a ring counter... driven by a 'random' source. > it go in a certain direction, he need only wait till the > random chance comes up his way and say "There, I finaly got > it to move in the right direction!". The only way for this > experiment to be controlled is to give the subject a SPECIFIC > time interval and RANDOM direction each trial and to have > many trials. I'm willing to bet that the results will show > no statistical significance. > ... > If the experiment is properly controlled, the PSI ability to > influence the apparatus will fail. The directional lights I have heard about but do not know of the testing arrangements. However, I do know that physicist Helmut Schmidt in San Antonio has done numerous such studies with radioactive decay events and they are very specific as to when, how long, and which side of a double-event is to be hit. (A coin toss usually determines which side.) Studies have been done where the quantum events were taped and later replayed for the testing subject. Results were no different - the biases still occured. These are called PK time-displacement experiments. If the tests have been done properly and the results accurately recorded and interpreted, they would seem to indicate that there is something very important going on between the interaction of human (and animal) consciousness and quantum events. Not only that, but if the time-displacement results have any validity then it would seem that a profound change in our view of time itself may be required. -- Dave Trissel {ihnp4,siesmo}!ut-sally!oakhill!davet
gdmr@cstvax.UUCP (George D M Ross) (06/29/85)
In article <2784@decwrl.UUCP> wasser@viking.DEC (John A. Wasser) writes: > I suspect that no matter WHO did the observing, the light will > (for selected periods of time) make rather large excursions > to the left and right..... From "The Theory of Stochastic Processes" by D.R. Cox and H.D. Miller (just after example 2.7): "Thus an unrestricted particle, if allowed sufficient time, is certain to make indefinitely large excursions from its starting point and is also certain to return to its starting point." It's probably in Feller somewhere too. -- George D M Ross, Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Edinburgh Phone: +44 31-667 1081 x2730 UUCP: <UK>!ukc!{hwcs,kcl-cs,ucl-cs,edcaad}!cstvax!gdmr JANET: gdmr@UK.AC.ed.cstvax or gdmr@UK.AC.ed.ecsvax