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Probablitiy and reality vs. paranormal and coincidence. Also giant squid!
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Probablitiy and reality vs. paranormal and coincidence. Also giant squid!
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Probablitiy and reality vs. paranormal and coincidence. Also giant squid!
«
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19/07/2009 11:44:49 »
Forgive me if my points stray from purely scientific themes.
I'll try to be brief and get to the point since I don't wish to appear as a time wasting nutter.
This has to do with the many universes idea, and wave function collapse.
Is it possible that expectation can change the probability of an event?
Reality in this context is the probability of multiple
possible
events defined in part by unknown structures and "made flesh" by their observation. Highly trafficked mundane events have a high probability. They seem to clump together. Example: In the many different possible versions of reality there are a high number in which my wife brings me a cup of coffee, and just a few in which she brings tea. There is a sliding scale going all the way down to the unlikely idea that the day starts with a tumbler of gin. But the possibility certainly exists.
All these probable outcomes are swirling around waiting for someone or something to measure them so that they can become real. But in a sense my mind is biased toward the mundane, the probable. I expect the coffee. My wife expects to bring it. Ok enough about coffee.
Lets think like this - it's the 16th century and you're on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic. You and the crew are illiterate and superstitious and you're collapsing wave functions/observing and measuring things for a living on a dangerous ocean. Now suppose that you're lost and the wind dies and fear becomes palpable on deck. The improbable begins to gain footing. The Kraken is no longer a myth in the minds of the deckhands. Probabilities begin to change in everyone's eyes. The almost infinitely unlikely chance that your ship will be destroyed by a giant squid becomes, in the mind of the observers, much more possible. Now if every possible outcome exists there is at least one where a giant creature devours your ship, no? And that's the one you're now expecting to witness.
I haven't been clear, so I'll just say – I am wondering if "paranormal" and coincidental events might occur because the observer has changed his expectations of what might happen, and reality hinges on that observation. Might a strong or thorough enough set of expectations change the probability of an unlikely event? Might your belief in the Kraken bias you toward observing it, making this one squid-world real, out of all the possible outcomes?
I'm not looking for a lecture on pre-scientific thinking, and I'm not talking about every day bias and forcing the facts to conform to delusional notions. Though this all reads as a bit delusional I grant you. This is about the possibility of the one in a billion shot. Those extremely rare times where the world seems to lurch toward a fairy story rather than the normal one we all expect to wake up to.
Just something I'm thinking about tonight. Thanks if you read this far.
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