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Garret Moddel University of Colorado at Boulder
27 June 2008
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Precognition & retro-psychokinesis: Physical impossibility?
• “A collapse of the foundations of physics”? [Michio Kaku, Physics of the Impossible (2008)] – Violates causality, fundamental
ordering of cause & effect
• Purpose of this talk – To resolve “impossibility” of retrocausation: bilking
– Not to explain psychokinesis
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Outline
• Precognition
• Retro-psychokinesis (retro-PK)
• Compatibility with physics
• The bilking paradox • Information entropy ⇒ resolution
• Implications
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Evidence for Precognition
• Galvanic skin response in advance of loud noise (Spottiswoode & May 2003)
• EEG response in advance of light flashes (Radin 2006)
• fMRI images in advance of stimulus (Bierman & Scholte 2002)
• Many more (knowing which card will be shown in advance, remote perception of the future, etc.)
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Evidence for Retro-Psychokinesis
• Affecting pre-recorded clicks on audiotape (Schmidt 1976)
• Affecting previously recorded random-number generator outputs & random-mechanical cascade results (Dunne & Jahn 1992)
• Many more (retroactive prayer, etc.)
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Compatibility with Physics: Why Significant?
• Correctness – Are Kaku & others correct? – Should retrocausation be rejected out of hand?
• Understanding – Does our current logic extend to retrocausation? – Can we model effect?
⇒ Begin to understand mechanism?
• Limits – Where can we expect retrocausation to work? – Can we make use of it?
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What Sort of Physics?
• Newton’s laws: Causality?
• Conservation of Energy
• 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
• Quantum mechanics
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What Sort of Physics?
• Newton’s laws: Causality? • Conservation of Energy
– Two types of psychokinesis (PK) • Macro-PK
– Local – Forward causality – Energy transfer
• Micro-PK – Non-local – Non-temporal: forward and retro-causality – No energy transfer: information/decision transfer
• 2nd Law of Thermodynamics • Quantum mechanics
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What Sort of Physics?
• Newton’s laws: Causality?
• Conservation of Energy
• 2nd Law of Thermodynamics – Entropy (disorder) of closed system cannot
decrease
• Quantum mechanics
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The Paradox
• Grandfather paradox – The Imprudent Traveler, by René Barjavel (1943) – Going back in time to kill one’s grandfather before he
met one’s grandmother
– Unnecessarily vicious
– No evidence for this sort of retrocausation
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The Paradox
• Grandfather paradox – The Imprudent Traveler, by René Barjavel (1943) – Going back in time to kill one’s grandfather before he
met one’s grandmother
– Unnecessarily vicious
– No evidence for this sort of retrocausation
• Not all-or-nothing process
• Lottery – Yesterday winning number of lottery chosen by random
process
– Today you decide you would like to be the winner
– Use retroactive psychokinesis (retro-PK) to affect yesterday’s result
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General “Bilking (Intervention) Paradox”
• Event B caused by later event A
• After B occurs, block A
• Event B then bilked out of its cause
Event B Event A
time
Event B Event A
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Bilking Your Knowledge
• Case 1: No knowledge of lottery result before using retro-PK
– ?
8-9-15-18-27
Knowledge before using retro-PK
Knowledge after using retro-PK
?-?-?-?-?-?
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Bilking Your Knowledge
• Case 1: No knowledge of lottery result before using retro-PK
– No bilking problem
• Case 2: Know result in advance
– ?
8-9-15-18-27
Knowledge before using retro-PK
Knowledge after using retro-PK
8-9-15-18-27
?-?-?-?-?-?
2-9-12-21-27
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Bilking Your Knowledge
• Case 1: No knowledge of lottery result before using retro-PK
– No bilking problem
• Case 2: Know result in advance
– Total bilking: impossible
• Case 3: Partial knowledge
– ?
8-9-15-18-27
Knowledge before using retro-PK
Knowledge after using retro-PK
8-9-15-18-27
8-9-15-18-27 27-?-?-9-?
?-?-?-?-?-?
2-9-12-21-27
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How to Avoid Bilking: Information Entropy
• Entropy has two forms: – Thermodynamic
– Information
• Express quantitatively – How surprised you are to learn that intended
outcome has occurred: “surprisal”
• If you know little about outcome beforehand – Surprisal, uncertainty & information entropy is large
– Possibility of retro-PK is large
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Surprisal, Information Entropy & Psychokinesis
• Can define “surprisal” quantitatively
Surprisal =
• Uncertainty = Information entropy = average surprisal (famous Shannon formula)
Entropy =
• Maximum retro-PK possible is proportional to information entropy
€
I(An ) = log21
p(An )
€
H(A) = p(Ai)i=1
n
∑ log21
p(Ai)
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Implications
• Retrocausation compatible with Newton’s laws
Conservation of Energy
? 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (logic)
• Logic & bilking paradox ⇒ conditions for retrocausation Not all-or-nothing process Greater knowledge of previous outcome
⇒ smaller the information entropy
⇒ less effect agent can have
• Bilking paradox disappears if PK limited by uncertainty (information entropy ~ noise)