Bem tells us that random undergraduate students were able to predict with 53% accuracy where an erotic image would appear in the future. If this effect was actually real, I would rerun the experiment before corporate earnings announcements, central bank interest rate changes, etc, and change the images based on the reaction of stocks and bonds to the announcements. In other words, I could easily convert “porn precognition” into “hedge fund trillionaire precognition.”
This doesn’t just assume that the effect is reproduceable, it assumes that the effect generalizes to things other than erotic images. Considering that erotic imagery gets special treatment in our brain’s processes that finance does not, this seems like a dubious assumption even given the premise that the effect is real.
The idea is to (say) show an erotic image on the right if the stock goes up, and one on the left if the stock goes down. It’s still porn precognition, except the “randomness” source is the stock market rather than whatever they used in the original experiment.
It does still assume though that the effect allows one to predict better than chance where the image will appear regardless of the process that determines the location.
Suppose humans had some sort of telepathy that allowed them to read the state of the computer on some subconscious level and thereby predict the location where the image would appear, if the location were determined by the computer that was displaying the images. Predicting corporate earning announcements, interest rate changes, etc. would be an entirely different matter.
This doesn’t just assume that the effect is reproduceable, it assumes that the effect generalizes to things other than erotic images. Considering that erotic imagery gets special treatment in our brain’s processes that finance does not, this seems like a dubious assumption even given the premise that the effect is real.
No it doesn’t?
The idea is to (say) show an erotic image on the right if the stock goes up, and one on the left if the stock goes down. It’s still porn precognition, except the “randomness” source is the stock market rather than whatever they used in the original experiment.
Ah, you’re right, I misinterpreted that.
It does still assume though that the effect allows one to predict better than chance where the image will appear regardless of the process that determines the location.
Suppose humans had some sort of telepathy that allowed them to read the state of the computer on some subconscious level and thereby predict the location where the image would appear, if the location were determined by the computer that was displaying the images. Predicting corporate earning announcements, interest rate changes, etc. would be an entirely different matter.