Seeing into the future?

[Ed]

Can This Black Box See Into the Future?


DEEP in the basement of a dusty university library in Edinburgh lies a small black box, roughly the size of two cigarette packets side by side, that churns out random numbers in an endless stream.

At first glance it is an unremarkable piece of equipment. Encased in metal, it contains at its heart a microchip no more complex than the ones found in modern pocket calculators.

But, according to a growing band of top scientists, this box has quite extraordinary powers. It is, they claim, the 'eye' of a machine that appears capable of peering into the future and predicting major world events.

The machine apparently sensed the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre four hours before they happened - but in the fevered mood of conspiracy theories of the time, the claims were swiftly knocked back by sceptics. But last December, it also appeared to forewarn of the Asian tsunami just before the deep sea earthquake that precipitated the epic tragedy.

Now, even the doubters are acknowledging that here is a small box with apparently inexplicable powers.

'It's Earth-shattering stuff,' says Dr Roger Nelson, emeritus researcher at Princeton University in the United States, who is heading the research project behind the 'black box' phenomenon.

'We're very early on in the process of trying to figure out what's going on here. At the moment we're stabbing in the dark.' Dr Nelson's investigations, called the Global Consciousness Project, were originally hosted by Princeton University and are centred on one of the most extraordinary experiments of all time. Its aim is to detect whether all of humanity shares a single subconscious mind that we can all tap into without realising.

And machines like the Edinburgh black box have thrown up a tantalising possibility: that scientists may have unwittingly discovered a way of predicting the future.

More here - http://www.redorbit.com/news/display/?id=126649#121

[GrinReaper]

Hmm... being the cynical bastard I am, I tend to think that unless they come out and say, 'something big is about to happen' and then it does, no-one is going to believe it.

Because using hindsight, anyone can have claimed to have predicted anything.

[Ed]

I agree.  There was a guy where my wife used to work who was in the Plymouth Brethren, or some other weird religious group, and they apparently told him he would undergo his 'rapture' on a certain day (think it was May 11th 2004).  From what I'm told, this means he would simply and spontaneously cease to exist.  Okey-dokey   He, being a true believer, gives everything he owns - away.  He isn't going to need material possessions where he's going.  So he says his goodbyes to all his friends at work and goes home on the 10th (for argument's sake) and... turns up for work on the 12th.  The elders told him they must have made a mistake

Now, the guy might be a dope, but at least he had the courage of his convictions to come out with his theory ahead of time

[sharon]

   Gee, where are all the chatterboxes?    And the really opinionated people?    Does anyone argue, or chitter chatter about these things?

Okie-dokie then!     I'll talk up a storm here until blunt or someone tells me to leave  then I'll argue about it

The little black box is a new one on me, blunt.  Hadn't heard of it until now.  Frustrating since I ususally keep up to par on these things...  It streams out numbers, eh?  Well, they say the language of the universe is mathematical, everything vibrates to a number (between one and nine).  Hmmm.... maybe they're correct in this?  Then again mayhap some bloke had granny's broken kitchen timer and it's spittin out random numbers because it's been possessed by a demon that's laughin its smoky arse off at all us for debating about it. 

The Plymouth Brethren is a religious group where Aleister Crowley's mum and da were members.  Or, rather PB is a descendant of the original religious...uh...sect, cult, group??  Hey blunt!  Got any interestin info on Crowley?  I've asked a couple other people (both live in the UK) and their answers: "Er, Al--, who's that?" and "Uhm, no sweetie...I don't."

Post more of these interestin little snips, would you?

Shay

[Ed]

Ummm... no, I don't know much about Aleister Crowley.  Just what you can already find on the internet, really.  We've got a nest of those PB weirdos in a town near us and have done for quite a few years.  My wife worked with a couple of them and got to know them quite well.  Both were very secretive about their religions and wouldn't be drawn very much on what they got up to.  They struck me as being similar to the Amish in many ways, but despite their piety they seemed to me to be the most joyless people I've ever known in my life, and kind of smug with it.  They would congregate in front of betting shops in town on Saturdays and scream passages from the bible at the punters.  One time I saw a thirteen year old boy doing it - purple in the face and screaming his lungs out until his voice broke, while the elders gazed at him with prideful expressions.  Sickening.  Made me want to go place a bet.

I hate all that shit - it smacks of brainwashing, and I consider these religious zealots to be more potentially evil than satanists, in many cases.  And I think a child raised in an environment like that will tend to swing between extremes, like all zealots.  The East Germans found the former Nazis made excellent communists (a swing from far right to far left ideology).  The same appears to be true in religion.

[sharon]

Ahhh, yes!  A man after me own dear black heart!  Brainwashing, indeed.  The PBs are a strange lot, I know some about the things they get up to...enough to steer clear of em, heheheh.

Religion is just too...uhm....right word?... damning (got it) for me!  I have a 6 yr old and me mum and da take her to church almost every sunday.  I've allowed it so far because every person should be able to make up their own mind about things like that, eh?  Well, mum just had a pisser of a fit because I told her me wee one's takin this weekend off from the church scene.  High time to do somethin when you're 6 yr old starts spouting off how ye're goin to hell because ye don't go to church! didn't sit well with me....not at all!  Tolerant and lenient I am, but that crossed me lines up and pissed me off.  Me mum says get em while they're young and tender....and I asked if she was recruiting for the bible thumpers or the slaughterhouse    (and yeah, I'm not well-liked where I live!) 

*I've demanded cremation for me funeral and the family thinks I'm bonkers.  But they're the ones set that I'm going to hell...  I say if it's all gonna end in flames for me what difference does it make?*

And the satanists are nowhere near as radical in most cases as religious zealots.  A buddy of mine (a few years back) had a brother and cousin who were both satanists.  I didn't even know this for three or four years and I thought I knew them pretty well... and a lot of the stereotypes don't come close to fitting them, either. 


Methinks I'm too free a spirit to hold to a religion.  I've offended loads of people by comments before and I really don't mean to do that---just seems me hardware wasn't designed to make me care much.  I've lived here all me miserable life (know anything about the BibleBelt? ha) and know a bit about the religious zealots!!  And they ask me how I sleep at night... I don't I stay up writing things that make them wonder how I sleep at night.

------------
Damn, I wish I could find some info about AC that isn't widely known...  sorry, I suffer from intolerable obsessive/compulsive disorder... really.  Insufferable geek with a penchant for the occult and all things horror, too.......egads!!! 

thanks for replying, I appreciate it.
shay

[Ed]

Oh, I don't know how so many people get sucked in by all that bullshit where they point to passages in the bible and take it literally, or worse say stuff like, "That really means... this!" when it quite clearly doesn't   STFU, I say - you're re-interpreting a 1700 year old book that was compiled and edited by a bunch of conniving bastards, who were in turn working from Greek translations of Hebrew.  It would be a miracle in itself if there was still an ounce of truth left in the whole thing, if you ask me.

We packed our kids off to Sunday School for a while, mainly to get a couple hours peace on a Sunday morning   But, same as you, when they started coming back spouting that hateful bullshit, that was the end of it.  I'm not really sure where I stand on beliefs, but the idea of worshipping Satan doesn't appeal to me at all, and I wouldn't do it even if it did appeal, just in case I inadvertently condemned myself to an eternity of fire and brimstone.  I know the bible thumpers say I'm heading that way anyway, but I don't think so, and I'd rather be guided by my own conscience and morals than theirs.

Religious threads can get very heated on forums, but they can be fascinating.  I think our members are more open minded and tolerant than average, though, so I don't think we'll be having any death threats here.

[sharon]

Woo, I hope we don't get any death threats...but if we did it wouldn't change me opinions in the least about the subject.  Like you, I'm going (for better or worse) on my own guidance down the spiritual path...  I don't much like the idea of worshipping anything/anyone, so it leaves me kinda stuck out in the cold with the community. heheh.

I've argued with me mum for several years over the bible interpretation.  Most people don't realize that most of the bible isn't even in The Bible KJV or others.  The church leaders did the whole pick and chose with the writings.  I'd say they sat round a big ole room (without the women, of course) and 'Aye' and 'Nay' ed the texts on the basis of whether each one suited their lust for power and dominance...

Me own beliefs would be near impossible to categorize and I like that fine.  Never been much of one to cotton to being pigeon-holed.  Labels suck so I try me best not to use them.  Being human makes that impossible to stick to all the time, though.   I look at it like this:  I'd rather live a non-religious life and have no one to blame but meself if I end up with old Lucky for a master than to live a supposed 'christian' life and then turn out to be a hypocrite because of some misinformation on the preacherman's part and STILL end up in hell, only being called a hypocrite...ugh!

Ah, most of me family and neighbors believe I'll burn, too.  And probably more than a few of them hope I'll burn      Never been much to worry bout what others thought, either 

shay

[Ed]

Sounds good to me

I sometimes wish I did believe the whole thing and have a big, unshakable faith - it would make life a lot simpler and more clear-cut, but I'm just not built that way.

[sharon]

You and me both, friend.... I'm not built that way, either.  I believe none of what I hear and only a small fraction of what I see for meself.  'Proof' doesn't prove much to me, either, as that can be manipulated and honed down to a person's own desired result/effect.  Eh.... ... I'm such a nitty shite sometimes!    been thinkin... if I did just swallow the whole bit and believe it without a doubt then I'd be like all these people round here (most likely) and that just makes me itch all over!  I can't wait to see the reactions when some of the nosy noots get their first peek at me poem Creepin Jesus!  Bet they put up the burnin stake!  I've got a bag packed because they'll run me out of here....oh, well.... I'm sure I can find a nice dark haunted corner somewhere else to burrow into--a tree trunk, a cave, a straight-jacket  

Jeezh!    And I wonder why they all hate me so?   :cheesy:The more I talk the clearer it becomes!

shay

[Walker]

yep, that black box thing is interesting enough to cause one to read further, but that's about it. I love reading things like that but, like Sharon, I'm a sceptic at heart and I seldom believe what may even be believable. Proof means nothing to me. I trust my instinct more.

[sharon]

Hello, Walker!

Nice to have someone else join the discussion  especially if they share an opinion with me

Proof is an unreliable thing at best.  Instincts are always truer.  I think that's a big part of why I write so much.  Playing with theories and vague ideas by writing lets me figure out what I believe about any given subject, or if, indeed, I believe anything at all about it.  The results usually piss in someone's corn flakes and then I do get death threats!  No matter the mass opinions, I'll always hold more respect for those who're brave enough to follow their own instincts and heart than for those who go with something just because that's the way it's always been, what sheep they are!

shay

[Ed]

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a far more simple explanation, like they don't realise the machine is actually picking up the thunderous discharge from unwitting anal psychic, Professor Delroy Spunglebollock's, bowels, in the staff toilet block, on the floor below the research lab.

Every time there's a disturbance in the world wide (as yet undiscovered) gurglegastric bogtwatter field, caused by a major event on this planet, the professor's anal exclamations begin, forcing him to rush to the nearest bog, drop-trow and heave a mighty log into the waters below, while yelling in a Glaswegian accent (which is unusual because he's Swedish), "Thar she fuckin blows!"

This hypersensitive instrument picked up the splashback, not the tsunami, and there is indeed nothing miraculous at work here. They should be looking at the professor's arse instead

[sharon]

                    


Blunt!  You're too much, friend!  Ye've done what some consider impossible....left me speechless.  Can't think straight because I'm laughing too hard....ahahahahah.....


            our newest member, The Psychic Arse!


shay

[Ed]