Researchers On Verge Of Confirming Retrocausality?

This could go in Sci/tech or Origins&creation perhaps, but I believe it works here too. Besides I've never posted in this forum before... hope that's ok Mods. Certainly would make astral-projection, OBE, past lives, etc make more sense, I think.

Science hopes to change events that have already occurred



[...]retrocausality, the idea that the present can affect the past, and the future can affect the present. Strange as it sounds, retrocausality is perfectly permissible within the known laws of nature. It has been debated for decades, mostly in the realm of philosophy and quantum physics. Trouble is, nobody has done the experiment to show it happens in the real world, so the door remains wide open for a demonstration.


It might even happen soon. Researchers are on the verge of experiments that will finally hold retrocausality's feet to the fire by attempting to send a signal to the past. What's more, they need not invoke black holes, wormholes, extra dimensions or other exotic implements of time travel. It should all be doable with the help of a state-of-the-art optics workbench and the bizarre yet familiar tricks of quantum particles. If retrocausality is confirmed -- and that is a huge if -- it would overturn our most cherished notions about the nature of cause and effect and how the universe works.

[...]

In other words, still no unambiguous evidence for retrocausality.

That's where John Cramer comes in. In the mid-1980s, working at the University of Washington in Seattle, he proposed the "transactional interpretation" of quantum mechanics, one of many attempts to relate the mathematics of quantum theory to the real world. It says particles interact by sending and receiving physical waves that travel forward and backward through time.


[...]

Jensen suggested that such a setup might let you send a signal from one detector to another instantaneously -- a highly controversial claim, since it would seem to demonstrate faster-than-light travel.
If you can do that, Cramer says, why not push it to be better-than-instantaneous, and try to make the signal arrive before it was sent? His extra twist is to run the photons you choose how to measure through several kilometers of coiled-up fiber-optic cable, thereby delaying them by microseconds. This delay means that the other beam will arrive at its detector before you make your choice. However, since the rules of quantum mechanics are indifferent to the timing of measurements, the state of the other beam should correspond to how you choose to measure the delayed beam. The effect of your choice can be seen, in principle, before you have even made it.

Very interesting read. The question/paradox posed in the article is:

If the experiment does show evidence for retrocausation, it would open the door to some troubling paradoxes. If you could see the effects of your choice before you make it, could you then make the opposite choice and subvert the laws of nature?... anybody here watch Lost, lol.


My gut says this is wrong (ie, not going to work) but quantum mechanics is a bit over my head... jus' a tad. 'Life is here because life made it possible to be here'... is how theoretical physicist Paul Davies explains it in the article.

Wikipedia: Retrocausality


Comments?

[edit on 14-3-2007 by Rren]

Paul Davies talked about this as a speaker at the Beyond Belief 2006 conference (video here)



Davies' web page is, cosmos.asu.edu... and his current research can be found here.


This is similar to Einstein's "spooky action at a distance" except in this case the "spooky action" is consciousness (as the effect) acting/informing the distant past (as the cause) or the universe 'fine-tuning itself' or as Davies' says "the universe is exquisitely shaped to produce life because life made it so."


If true (ie, "arrow time" is wrong) this turns everything we think we know on its ear. The paranormal becomes normal...

I think... therefore it is? And of course... "I think, therefore I am" takes on a whole new (literal) meaning.

I think

I don't know if this fits or even helps your thread, but I recall reading something about Nicola Tesla where he tells a reporter that he had been accidentally electrocuted just before their meeting, and claimed to have seen his past, presend and future self all at the same time.

If I find a link to where I read this, I'll post it.

EDIT:

I found the quote I was looking for, but to tell you the truth, I don't know how credible the source is. I'm also not sure if that is where I read it the first time. While what is said might be true/factual, I'm just not sure about "Commander X"/ Jim Keith. Bascially,...take it with a grain of salt.

Nicola Tesla: Secret Time Travel Experiments

Tesla's first brush with time travel came in March 1895. A reporter for the New York Herald wrote on March 13 that he came across the inventor in a small café, looking shaken after being hit by 3.5 million volts, "I am afraid," said Tesla, "that you won't find me a pleasant companion tonight. The fact is I was almost killed today. The spark jumped three feet through the air and struck me here on the right shoulder. If my assistant had not turned off the current instantly in might have been the end of me."
Tesla, on contact with the resonating electromagnetic charge, found himself outside his time-frame reference. He reported that he could see the immediate past - present and future, all at once. But he was paralyzed within the electromagnetic field, unable to help himself. His assistant, by turning off the current, released Tesla before any permanent damage was done. A repeat of this very incident would occur years later during the Philadelphia Experiment.

[edit on 14-3-2007 by 2manyquestions]

Wow! Great post mate, but wouldn't that mean that you could affect the past, but you would never know that you did, because you have already altered it and you would then have no reason to alter it in the first place and...
My brains about to explode.

Hi there Rren,

When it comes to sending info faster than light I would firstly recommend reading the following:

Is Faster Than Light Travel or Communication Possible?

My personal favourite would be the phenomena of Quantum Tunnelling.

There have been experiments conducted that appear to give the results of information transfer faster than light using this method.

Dr Gunter Nimtz recorded results of some 11 times faster than the speed of light when he sent Mozart’s 40th symphony across a 12 inch peace of wood.

You can read more about Dr Gunter Nimtz here...

Dr Gunter Nimtz - Home Page

You can hear Mozarts 40th sent through quantum tunnelling here..

Dr Gunter Nimtz is sending Mozart's 40th Symphony

If you want to learn more about faster than light devices using quantum tunnelling then you can learn more here.

Superluminal Tunneling Devices

Here is an interesting article on Retrocausality… In wave and Out waves.

In/out waves origin - The Final Enigma

To summarises the above link and the concept of wave function in time.

Essentially the wave nature of reality could be considered to be two waves one moving forwards and one moving backwards through time. Where the waves cancel each other out and where they reinforce themselves is what we experience as the present.

This concept would reinforce the uncertainty principle and quantum superposition.

It also could go a long way to explaining synchronicities formulated by Carl Jung..

Synchronicity - Wikipedia

Some would say that for this concept to be correct it would negate free will and strengthens a concept of destiny.

My personal take on this is that when we make a choice we are creating a resonance within the forward moving wave and so have a direct input to what reality we experience. This is consistent with the unifying theory of Loop Quantum Gravity.

I would also add that using the uncertainty principle to send information at Superluminal speeds does not constitute sending information into the past. What it does highlight is that we can affect the outcome of future events that are experienced in the only thing that exists…. The NOW.

All the best,

NeoN HaZe.