Stephen L Baumgart et al., Prediction of truly random future events using analysis of prestimulus electroencephalographic data, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 030002-10.
Our hypothesis is that pre-stimulus physiological data can be used to predict truly random events tied to perceptual stimuli (e.g., lights and sounds). Our experiment presents light and sound stimuli to a passive human subject while recording electrocortical potentials using a 32-channel Electroencephalography (EEG) system. For every trial a quantum random number generator (qRNG) chooses from three possible selections with equal probability: a light stimulus, a sound stimulus, and no stimulus. Time epochs are defined preceding and post-ceding each stimulus for which mean average potentials were computed across all trials for the three possible stimulus types. Data from three regions of the brain are examined. In all three regions mean potential for light stimuli was generally enhanced relative to baseline during the period starting approximately 2 seconds before the stimulus. For sound stimuli, mean potential decreased relative to baseline during the period starting approximately 2 seconds before the stimulus. These changes from baseline may indicated the presence of evoked potentials arising from the stimulus. A P200 peak was observed in data recorded from frontal electrodes. The P200 is a well-known potential arising from the brain’s processing of visual stimuli and its presence represents a replication of a known neurological phenomenon.
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Giuseppe Castagnoli, Completing the physical representation of quantum algorithms provides a retrocausal explanation of the speedup, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 020004-14.
The usual representation of quantum algorithms, limited to the process of solving the problem, is physically incomplete
as it lacks the initial measurement. We extend it to the process of setting the problem. An initial measurement selects a problem
setting at random, and a unitary transformation sends it into the desired setting. The extended representation must be with respect
to Bob, the problem setter, and any external observer. It cannot be with respect to Alice, the problem solver. It would tell her the
problem setting and thus the solution of the problem implicit in it. In the representation to Alice, the projection of the quantum
state due to the initial measurement should be postponed until the end of the quantum algorithm. In either representation, there is a
unitary transformation between the initial and final measurement outcomes. As a consequence, the final measurement of any R-th
part of the solution could select back in time a corresponding part of the random outcome of the initial measurement; the associated
projection of the quantum state should be advanced by the inverse of that unitary transformation. This, in the representation to
Alice, would tell her, before she begins her problem solving action, that part of the solution. The quantum algorithm should be
seen as a sum over classical histories in each of which Alice knows in advance one of the possible R-th parts of the solution and
performs the oracle queries still needed to find it – this for the value of R that explains the algorithm’s speedup. We have a relation
between retrocausality R and the number of oracle queries needed to solve an oracle problem quantumly. All the oracle problems
examined can be solved with any value of R up to an upper bound attained by the optimal quantum algorithm. This bound is always
in the vicinity of 1 . Moreover, R = 1 always provides the order of magnitude of the number of queries needed to solve the problem 22
in an optimal quantum way. If this were true for any oracle problem, as plausible, it would solve the quantum query complexity problem.
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York Dobyns, Empirical retrocausality: Testing physics hypotheses with parapsychological experiments, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 030005-13.
In 2011, Daryl Bem published a report of nine parapsychological experiments showing evidence of retrocausal information transfer. Earlier in 2016, the team of Bem, Tressoldi, Rabeyron, and Duggan published the results of a meta-analysis containing 81 independent replications of the original Bem experiments (total of 90 with the originals).[1] This much larger database continues to show positive results of generally comparable effect size, thus demonstrating that the effects claimed by Bem can be replicated by independent researchers and greatly strengthening the case for empirically observed retrocausation. Earlier (2011) work by this author showed how a modification of one of Bem’s original experiments could be used to test the mechanism implicitly proposed by Echeverria, Klinkhammer, and Thorne to explain how retrocausal phenomena can exist without any risk of self-contradictory event sequences (time paradoxes). In light of the new publication and new evidence, the current work generalizes the previous analysis which was restricted to only one of Bem’s experimental genres (precognitive approach and avoidance). The current analysis shows how minor modifications can be made in Bem’s other experimental genres of retroactive priming, retroactive habituation, and retroactive facilitation of recall to test the EKT anti-paradox mechanism. If the EKT hypothesis is correct, the modified experiments, while continuing to show replicable retrocausal phenomena, will also show a characteristic pattern of distortion in the statistics of the random selections used to drive the experiments.
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Aurélien Drezet, Lorentz-invariant, retrocausal, and deterministic hidden variables, Arxiv.Org, 2019 1904.08134, quant-ph.
We review several no-go theorems attributed to Gisin and Hardy, Conway and Kochen purporting the impossibility of Lorentz-invariant deterministic hidden-variable model for explaining quantum nonlocality. Those theorems claim that the only known solution to escape the conclusions is either to accept a preferred reference frame or to abandon the hidden-variable program altogether. Here we present a different alternative based on a foliation dependent framework adapted to deterministic hidden variables. We analyse the impact of such an approach on Bohmian mechanics and show that retrocausation (that is future influencing the past) necessarily comes out without time-loop paradox.
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Avshalom C Elitzur and Eliahu Cohen, The retrocausal tip of the quantum iceberg, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 020005-11.
We discuss the fundamental role of non-events in quantum mechanics. The (non-)emission of a particle from an isolated atom under the uncertainty principle is studied with the aid of two novel gedankenexperiments, one using projective measurements and the other going deeper with the aid of weak measurements. We describe the basic experimental setups, point out the surprising predictions of quantum theory, analyzed using the Two-State-Vector Formalism, and briefly conclude with some broader implications.
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Alexander Gebharter et al., Establishing Backward Causation on Empirical Grounds: An Interventionist Approach, Thought: A Journal Of Philosophy, 8 (2019) 129-138.
We propose an analysis of backward causation in terms of interventionism that can avoid several problems typically associated with backward causation. Its main advantage over other accounts is that it allows for reducing the problematic task of supporting backward causal claims to the unproblematic task of finding evidence for several ordinary forward directed causal hypotheses.
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Dale E Graff and Patricia S Cyrus, Perceiving the future news: Evidence for retrocausation, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 030001-11.
Thirty-three exploratory psi investigations were recently performed using Conscious State Psi and Dream State Psi protocols for photographic material that did not exist at the time of the psi sessions. Results would provide evidence for retrocausation if the future photographs had influenced the sessions’ data. The psi targets were Associated Press (AP) news photographs published in a Reading, PA area newspaper on a specific page three days in the future. These photographs were taken one day after the psi sessions. Following each psi session, and prior to the photograph’s existence, perceptions were recorded in project records and email transmitted for date validation. Feedback was provided when the photograph was published. There were two phases: Phase I was an informal investigation performed by the principle author to evaluate project feasibility. Phase II was a formal investigation with a colleague 1,000 miles from the principle author and the area newspaper location. All data were evaluated by direct comparison to the intended photographs using numerical assessment scales and noting unique features. Data from 21 of the 33 sessions (64%) yielded sketches and narratives with medium and high degrees of correlations with the future news photographs. A subsequent binary analysis using control photographs yielded p = 0.040. Visual informational content of these future newspaper photographs had interacted with the brain’s cognitive processes in a retrocausal sense. The future photographs affected the sessions’ data. A subconscious interaction between the future and the present or past may be an on-going feature of the mental and physical universe. Suggestions for follow-on investigations into retrocausation are provided.
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Jacob Jolij and Dick J Bierman, Testing the potential paradoxes in “retrocausal” phenomena, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 030003-13.
Discussions with regard to potential paradoxes arising from “retrocausal” phenomena have been purely theoretical because so far no empirical effects had been established that allowed for empirical exploration of these potential paradoxes.
In this article we describe three human experiments that showed clear “retrocausal” effects. In these neuropsychological, so-called, face-detection experiments, consisting of hundreds of trials per participant, we use brain signals to predict an upcoming random stimulus. The binary random decision, corresponding to showing a noisy cartoon face or showing only noise on a display with equal probability is taken after the brain signals have been measured. The prediction accuracy ranges from 50.5-56.5% for the 3 experiments where chance performance would be 50%.
The prediction algorithm is based on a template constructed out of all the pre-stimulus brain signals obtained in other trials of that particular participant. This approach thus controls for individual difference in brain functioning. Subsequently we describe an experiment based upon these findings where the predictive information is used in part of the trials to determine the stimulus rather than randomly select that stimulus. In those trials we analyze what the brain signals tell us what the future stimulus would be and then we reverse the actual future that is presented on the display. This is a ‘bilking’ condition. We analyze what the consequence of the introduction of this bilking condition is on the accuracy of the remaining (normal) trials and, following a suggestion inferred from Thorne et al, we also check what the effect is on the random decision to either bilk or not bilk the specific trial. The bilking experiment is in progress and the results so far do not allow for conclusions and are presented only as an illustration.
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Andrew N Jordan et al., Janus sequences of quantum measurements and the arrow of time, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 020003-7.
We examine the time reversal symmetry of quantum measurement sequences by introducing a forward and backward Janus sequence of measurements. If the forward sequence of measurements creates a sequence of quantum states in time, start- ing from an initial state and ending in a final state, then the backward sequence begins with the time-reversed final state, exactly retraces the intermediate states, and ends with the time-reversed initial state. We prove that such a sequence can always be con- structed, showing that unless the measurements are ideal projections, it is impossible to tell if a given sequence of measurements is progressing forward or backward in time. A statistical arrow of time emerges only because typically the forward sequence is more probable than the backward sequence.
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Ruth E Kastner, Is there really “retrocausation” in time-symmetric approaches to quantum mechanics?, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 020002-7.
Time-symmetric interpretations of quantum theory are often presented as featuring "retrocausal" effects in addition to the usual forward notion of causation. This paper examines the ontological implications of certain time- symmetric theories, and finds that no dynamical notion of causation applies to them, either forward or backward. It is concluded that such theories actually describe a static picture, in which the notion of causation is relegated to a descriptor of static relationships among events. In addition, these theories lead to an epistemic rather than ontologically referring, realist view of quantum states.
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Stanley A Klein and Christopher Cochran, Physics and the role of mind, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 040002-10.
This paper explores the role of the mind in the physical world. We begin with a brief introduction to distinct types of retrocausal phenomena connected with parapsychology and physics. We provide an introduction to laws of quantum mechanics (QM) that lead some to surmise connections between QM and psychic phenomena (psi). Next, we present our argument that ver- ification of psi will require changes to QM. As a possible placeholder for these changes we introduce “Mind”, from Cartesian dualism. This area of research points the way to connections between two fundamental issues in science: the mind-matter hard problem and the measurement problem of QM. Positive outcomes of carefully executed experiments could demonstrate a close re- lationship between these two problems, including the possibility that sentience plays an important role in the fundamental laws of physics. We focus on a version of Daryl Bem’s seeing the future experiments, which should allow for discrimination between vari- ous interpretations of QM. Finally, although the authors are psi skeptics, we suggest methodologies that may enable psi phenomena to be acceptable to mainstream science.
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CW Lear, The Case for Advance Wave Causality., Journal Of Scientific Exploration, 33 (2019) 61-72.
We seek to strengthen the hypothesis of time reversal of cause and effect, or the bipolar causal nature of advanced and retarded waves. The hypothesis is not directly testable, at least with existing technology, so the argument is based on a priori reasoning. It provides a basis for ra- tionalizing entanglement and for the Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory. Alternative hypotheses are given and compared to show justification.
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Julia J Mossbridge, Examining the nature of retrocausal effects in biology and psychology, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 030004-9.
Multiple laboratories have reported physiological and psychological changes associated with future events that are designed to be unpredictable by normal sensory means. Such phenomena seem to be examples of retrocausality at the macroscopic level. Here I will discuss the characteristics of seemingly retrocausal effects in biology and psychology, specifically examining a biological and a psychological form of precognition, predictive anticipatory activity (PAA) and implicit precognition. The aim of this examination is to offer an analysis of the constraints posed by the characteristics of macroscopic retrocausal effects. Such constraints are critical to assessing any physical theory that purports to explain these effects. Following a brief introduction to recent research on PAA and implicit precognition, I will describe what I believe we have learned so far about the nature of these effects, and conclude with a testable, yet embryonic, model of macroscopic retrocausal phenomena.
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Ashok Narasimhan and Menas C Kafatos, Wave particle duality, the observer and retrocausality, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 040004-10.
We approach wave particle duality, the role of the observer and implications on Retrocausality, by starting with the results of a well verified quantum experiment. We analyze how some current theoretical approaches interpret these results. We then provide an alternative theoretical framework that is consistent with the observations and in many ways simpler than usual attempts to account for retrocausality, involving a non-local conscious Observer.
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Sky Nelson-Isaacs, Guiding quantum histories with intermediate decomposition of the identity, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 020006-16.
The effect of a carefully chosen measurement action is proposed to be able to influence the probability distribution of future outcomes. Using the consistent histories formalism, we may calculate the overlap between a current measurement action and an array of possible future states. We propose an interpretation of the mathematics in which a current measurement action reaches recursively into future states and returns a probability. Using intermediate decomposition of a quantum history, we decompose a state at intermediate times into a complete set of states, using a grouping which distinguishes particular outcomes. The “meaning” of the grouping is defined rigorously, and it is shown that under certain minimal assumptions a ‘meaningful grouping’ will always increase the likelihood of a particular outcome. This is labeled “meaningful history selection.” Grouping histories is not a physical process, but rather an information theoretic one that occurs during the measurement process. The model is consistent with the standard Von Neumann measurement process under normal conditions, but leads to a proposed small deviation in the presence of a conscious observer that naturally accommodates the experimental evidence of certain psi phenomena. It is proposed that the effect of a conscious observer acting on a system is to group the histories in a distinguishable way, thereby minimizing the entropy increase of the system upon measurement. Compatibility with various models of quantum theory are discussed.
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Marcin Nowakowski, Quantum entanglement in time, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 020007-11.
In this paper we present a concept of quantum entanglement in time in a context of entangled consistent histories. These considerations are supported by presentation of necessary tools closely related to those acting on a space of spatial multipartite quantum states. We show that in similarity to monogamy of quantum entanglement in space, quantum entanglement in time is also endowed with this property for a particular history. Basing on these observations, we discuss further bounding of temporal correlations and derive analytically the Tsirelson bound implied by entangled histories for the Leggett-Garg inequalities.
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Jack Sarfatti, Progress in post-quantum mechanics, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 040003-6.
Newton’s mechanics in the 17th century increased the lethality of artillery. Thermodynamics in the 19th led to the steam- powered industrial revolution. Maxwell’s unification of electricity, magnetism and light gave us electrical power, the telegraph, radio and television. The discovery of quantum mechanics in the 20th century by Planck, Bohr, Einstein, Schrodinger, Heisenberg led to the creation of the atomic and hydrogen bombs as well as computer chips, the world-wide-web and Silicon Valley’s multi- billion dollar corporations. The lesson is that breakthroughs in fundamental physics, both theoretical and experimental, have always led to profound technological wealth-creating industries and will continue to do so. There is now a new revolution brewing in quantum mechanics that can be divided into three periods. The first quantum revolution was from 1900 to about 1975.The second quantum information/computer revolution was from about 1975 to 2015. (The early part of this story is told by Kaiser in his book, How the Hippies Saved Physics, how a small group of Berkeley/San Francisco physicists triggered that second revolution.) The third quantum revolution is how an extension of quantum mechanics may lead to the understanding of consciousness as a natural physical phenomenon that can emerge in many material substrates, not only in our carbon-based biochemistry. In particular, this new post-quantum mechanics may lead to naturally conscious artificial intelligence in nano-electronic machines, as well as perhaps extending human life spans to hundreds of years and more.
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Indrajit Sen, A Local -Epistemic Retrocausal Hidden-Variable Model of Bell Correlations with Wavefunctions in Physical Space, Foundations Of Physics, 2018 pp. 1-13.
We construct a local ψ-epistemic hidden-variable model of Bell correlations by a retrocausal adaptation of the originally superdeterministic model given by Brans. In our model, for a pair of particles the joint quantum state |ψe(t)⟩ as determined by preparation is epistemic. The model also assigns to the pair of particles a factoris- able joint quantum state |ψo(t)⟩ which is different from the prepared quantum state |ψe(t)⟩ and has an ontic status. The ontic state of a single particle consists of two parts. First, a single particle ontic quantum state χ (x⃗, t )|i ⟩, where χ (x⃗, t ) is a 3-space wavepacket and |i⟩ is a spin eigenstate of the future measurement setting. Second, a particle position in 3-space x⃗(t), which evolves via a de Broglie–Bohm type guid- ance equation with the 3-space wavepacket χ(x⃗,t) acting as a local pilot wave. The joint ontic quantum state |ψo(t)⟩ fixes the measurement outcomes deterministically whereas the prepared quantum state |ψe (t )⟩ determines the distribution of the |ψo (t )⟩’s over an ensemble. Both |ψo(t)⟩ and |ψe(t)⟩ evolve via the Schrodinger equation. Our model exactly reproduces the Bell correlations for any pair of measurement settings. We also consider ‘non-equilibrium’ extensions of the model with an arbitrary distri- bution of hidden variables. We show that, in non-equilibrium, the model generally violates no-signalling constraints while remaining local with respect to both ontology and interaction between particles. We argue that our model shares some structural similarities with the modal class of interpretations of quantum mechanics.
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Indrajit Sen, A Local -Epistemic Retrocausal Hidden-Variable Model of Bell Correlations with Wavefunctions in Physical Space, Foundations Of Physics, 2018 pp. 1-13.
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Henry P Stapp, Retrocausation in quantum mechanics and the effects of minds on the creation of physical reality, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2017) 040001-7.
The classical physical theories that prevailed in science from the time of Isaac Newton until the dawn of the twentieth century were empirically based on human experience and made predictions about our mental experiences, yet excluded from the dynamics all mental properties. But how can one rationally get mental things out if no mental elements are put in? The key step in the creation of quantum mechanics during 1925 by Heisenberg and his colleagues was to recognize and emphasize the essential dynamical role of mental properties in the creation of our mental empirical findings. This basic feature of quantum mechanics was cast into rigorous mathematical form by John von Neumann, and was made a central feature of contemporary relativistic quantum field theory by the work of Tomonaga and Schwinger. That theory is causally strictly forward in time. But it is explained here how it can nevertheless accommodate the seeming backward-in-time causal effects reported by D.J. Bem, and many others, by means of a slight biasing of the famous Born Rule. The purpose of this communication is to explain how those reported retrocausal findings can be explained by a strictly forward-in-time and nearly orthodox causal dynamics that, however, permits the Born Rule to be slightly biased under certain conditions. A feasible experiment is proposed that, if it gives the outcomes predicted by the proposed theory, will provide evidence in favor of this causally forward-in-time and nearly orthodox explanation of the reported retrocausal effects.
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Roderick I Sutherland, How retrocausality helps, Quantum Retrocausation III, 1841 (2018) 020001-6.
It has become increasingly apparent that a number of perplexing issues associated with the interpretation of quantum mechanics are more easily resolved once the notion of retrocausality is introduced. The aim here is to list and discuss various examples where a clear explanation has become available via this approach. In so doing, the intention is to highlight that this direction of research deserves more attention than it presently receives.
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Roderick I Sutherland, A spacetime ontology compatible with quantum mechanics, , 2019 pp. 1-10.
The ontology proposed in this paper is aimed at demonstrating that it is possible to understand the counter-intuitive predictions of quantum mechanics while still retaining much of the framework underlying classical physics, the implication being that it is better to avoid wandering into unnecessarily speculative realms without the support of conclusive evidence. In particular, it is argued that it is possible to interpret quantum mechanics as simply describing an external world consisting of familiar physical entities (e.g., particles or fields) residing in classical 3-dimensional space (not configuration space) with Lorentz covariance maintained.
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