Virtual worlds to test telepathy

[RichardR]

BBC:

A virtual world designed to test human telepathy has been demonstrated at the University of Manchester, UK.

Pairs of participants enter separate virtual rooms in the game and try to select which virtual object they think the other is interacting with.

The designers of the system say it overcomes some of the problems associated with real world studies.

Critics of previous tests say they are easily manipulated to create an effect that looks like telepathy but is not.

"By creating a virtual environment we are creating a completely objective environment which makes it impossible for participants to leave signals or even unconscious clues as to which object they have chosen," said Dr Toby Howard, one of the team that designed the system.

Note "impossible" to cheat.

Anyone see any problems with this?

 

[Kage]

If the two people have had no previous contact it may be cheat-proof. If the two people have had contact and wish to defraud the test, a simple system may be divised. For example, the people could have an alphabetic system, where they agree on an arrangement of letters, or the alphabet, and then interract with the objects (depending on their spelling) in that order. This is simmilar to the parlor game where the magician can pick the object agreed upon by the group because his assistant suggests it after a certain number of other objects.

 

[Meffy]

There was the fifths-of-the-minute trick for 100% Zener card accuracy. With Internet time servers it'd be easy to "synchronize watches" in a virtual world to pull off something similar.

 

[Soapy Sam]

I picked the pixels with the "Micro$oft" logo.

"Me too!"