For our final 5-in-5 project, Anderson and I collaborated on an experiment concerning ESP. Inspired by Ganzfeld experiments and this recent interview with Matmos, we designed an experiment to answer the following questions: Can binary data be transmitted telepathically? If so, how accurately can it be transmitted? At what speed?
Here’s how the experiment works. The researcher (me) attempts to telepathically transmit eight bits of binary data (one byte) to the experiment subject. To help control for bias, the bits to be transmitted are generated at random at the beginning of each experiment, and the researcher and the subject are located in different rooms while the experiment takes place. The bits are communicated sequentially; a series of timed tones, under the control of the researcher, regulates data transmission (letting the subject know when to move on to the next byte).
Our experiment today incorporated eight subjects, each of which attempted to receive eight bits of information. The total amount of attempted information transmission was eight bytes.
Here I am, trying to visualize and communicate zeroes and ones
Our colleague Vikram tries his hardest to read my mind.
Check after the jump for the results. Also make sure to check out 5-in-5 Guest Star Andrew Schneider’s first-person documentation of being an experimental subject.
