…a form of proto-life, defined as fluctuation patterns surviving longer than typical patterns do, can be hypothesised as occurring at the Planck scale, evolution of such life being expected to involve evolution of the accompanying informational systems also. We get to the proposed model by supposing that the ordinary physical component and the informational component can evolve separately. and that the informational component can even survive the creation and destruction of individual universes, remaining as an ever-present background with which new universes, Planck scale fluctuations and more developed life forms can all beneficially interact. Assuming an indefinitely extended time scale, the most persistent part of the informational background can evolve indefinitely …we suppose that individual life forms can perturb the background state so as to create a localised ‘thought bubble’, tied to the individual concerned. This suggests that the vacuum state involved is close to a phase transition, so that an appropriate perturbation can create a domain with a different kind of order to that of the vacuum. Assuming the validity of the scenario that has been described, the picture proposed can be adapted to account for the phenomena we set out to explain, namely telepathy or ESP.
2 thoughts on “Josephson: Thought Bubbles”
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An interesting paper. Although it is only a vague qualitative sketch of an actual theory, it is most interesting to see an esteemed physicist employed by a prestigious university actually voice the opinion that we should not be so quick to dismiss paranormal phenomena as utter nonsense. Scientists have been very reticent to mention anything to do with parapsychology, UFO’s, etc. ever since (I think) Erich von Daniken’s books for fear of facing ridicule and hurting their careers. Perhaps this is the beginning of a new trend.
Brian Josephson has been known for this sort of stuff since the 1980’s. Josephson is Bob Park’s favorite example of the lack of any necessary correlation between a Nobel Prize and a sound mind… My grad school advisor was a student along with Josephson at Cambridge in the 1950’s/60’s – he had a few stories to tell… But the Josephson effect in superconductivity is a rather remarkable discovery, so you have to give the guy some credit for that (well, he did get a prize for it!)