IIRC, in that chapter, he also discussed how quantum mechanics (specifically the double slit experiment) meant that information could travel backwards in time...
I don’t remember that specifically, but it would be one of the less crazy things he says. There are sound theoretical motivations for a retro-causal account of quantum mechanics, although a successful retro-causal model of the theory is yet to be constructed (John Cramer’s transactional interpretation comes close).
However, I do remember Adams endorsing something like The Secret) in the chapter, where you can change the world to your benefit merely by wanting it enough. I don’t entirely recall if he sees this as a consequence of quantum retro-causality, but I think he does, and if that’s the case then yeah, the quantum stuff is batshit too.
Yes, he does. It’s not necessarily “wanting it enough,” though; he specifically instructs that you have to pick a sentence that describes what you want, such as “I want to get rich in the stock market”—specific, but not too specific—and write it, by hand, in a notebook designated for this purpose, at least 10 times each night. He claims that doing this, he did in fact make a lot of money in the stock market, and became the mostt popular cartoonist in the world by a metric he specified (some index, I don’t remember which).
Not really connected to the quantum stuff, and possibly not as crazy. I think he mentions some possibility that all it actually does is force you to focus on your goals, which subconsciously makes you more responsive to opportunities, or something.
Confession: I was taken in by that section too for a while … a long while. In fact, when Eliezer’s quantum physics series started, my initial reaction was, “oh, I wonder how he’s going to handle the backwards-in-time stuff!”
IIRC, in that chapter, he also discussed how quantum mechanics (specifically the double slit experiment) meant that information could travel backwards in time...
I don’t remember that specifically, but it would be one of the less crazy things he says. There are sound theoretical motivations for a retro-causal account of quantum mechanics, although a successful retro-causal model of the theory is yet to be constructed (John Cramer’s transactional interpretation comes close).
However, I do remember Adams endorsing something like The Secret) in the chapter, where you can change the world to your benefit merely by wanting it enough. I don’t entirely recall if he sees this as a consequence of quantum retro-causality, but I think he does, and if that’s the case then yeah, the quantum stuff is batshit too.
Yes, he does. It’s not necessarily “wanting it enough,” though; he specifically instructs that you have to pick a sentence that describes what you want, such as “I want to get rich in the stock market”—specific, but not too specific—and write it, by hand, in a notebook designated for this purpose, at least 10 times each night. He claims that doing this, he did in fact make a lot of money in the stock market, and became the mostt popular cartoonist in the world by a metric he specified (some index, I don’t remember which).
Not really connected to the quantum stuff, and possibly not as crazy. I think he mentions some possibility that all it actually does is force you to focus on your goals, which subconsciously makes you more responsive to opportunities, or something.
Confession: I was taken in by that section too for a while … a long while. In fact, when Eliezer’s quantum physics series started, my initial reaction was, “oh, I wonder how he’s going to handle the backwards-in-time stuff!”