[ExI] Josephson Brains

[Damien Broderick]

On 2/27/2010 10:09 AM, Jeff Davis wrote:

> While it adds no substance to the info here, I would note that the
> "Extra" in ESP is not extra at all, but rather perception by another
> non-magical modality.  Human non-understanding of some natural
> phenomenon does not make the underlying mechanism 'magical'.  You know
> what I'm saying.  ESP has acquired a  meme-tone of spooky magicalness,
> and I'd like to revise that silliness.

Well, I agree with you, Jeff, in disliking any mysto woo-woo tone. The 
"extra" was meant by Rhine only to mean "not by means of known senses." 
But that "extra" has to go beyond, say, echolocation or pheromone 
detection or unusual sensitivity to high pitched sounds or infrared 
signals, etc, because (according to the available data) "ESP" is as 
effective with future random targets as with realtime hidden targets. 
That's what makes it interesting and truly puzzling. To explain this 
data is going to require a revision or expansion of current physics 
models--maybe some version of entanglement, or maybe Cramer's 
transactional handshaking, or something utterly new, that *does* permit 
nonlocal signaling.

I should note that nobody much in the parapsychology domain uses the 
term "ESP" any more, except when others do. The placeholder general term 
has been "psi" for decades.

Damien Broderick