Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: fizzicist on 05/01/2010 22:40:44

Title: Article in Science referred to by Robert Lanza?
Post by: fizzicist on 05/01/2010 22:40:44

I recently came across a blog article entitled Does Death Exist? New Theory Says 'No' (http://www.robertlanza.com/does-death-exist-new-theory-says-no/), written by Robert Lanza, M.D. in December, 2009. In that article, he mentions...

Quote from: Robert Lanza, M.D.

"...an experiment that was recently published in the journal Science showing that scientists could retroactively change something that had happened in the past."

Alas, he does not provide a specific reference to the article, the specific issue of Science in which it was published, or the date of publication. It appears to be an article about an actual retrocausality experiment.

Does anyone know what article he's referring to? If so, can you provide a link?

Thanks!

Title: Article in Science referred to by Robert Lanza?
Post by: Bill S on 26/10/2010 16:34:12

Wikipedia has quite an extensive article on Robert Lanza, you might find what you are looking for there.

Title: Article in Science referred to by Robert Lanza?
Post by: Farsight on 26/10/2010 19:08:04

He's referring to the delayed choice quantum eraser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_choice_quantum_eraser). The link to the Science article is on there, see this (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/315/5814/966) but you'll need to be a subscriber. For myself, I'm not a fan of retrocausality. IMHO the presentation of experiments like this don't adequately refer to electromagnetic four-potential and extended entities, but that's a long story. 

Title: Article in Science referred to by Robert Lanza?
Post by: Bill S on 26/10/2010 19:44:00

I, too, am not a fan of retrocausality, but I understand there are many scientists who are willing to accept it. 
Surely, if we believe that every spacetime event is unique and unchangeable,  we can subscribe to the idea of retrocausality only in a multiverse, and even there it presents problems.   

Title: Article in Science referred to by Robert Lanza?
Post by: Farsight on 26/10/2010 21:07:41

IMHO the multiverse is going from bad to worse Bill.

Title: Article in Science referred to by Robert Lanza?
Post by: Bill S on 26/10/2010 23:12:37

You can have fun with it though, especially when playing devil's advocate [;D]