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PHVSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
Elaborate tests conducted at the Rhine Center seem to suggest that
some people can see the future; that is, they can identify cards before
they are unveiled. But repeated experiments have shown that the effect
is very small, and often disappears when others try to duplicate the results.
In fact, precognition is difficult to reconcile with modern physics,
because it violates causality, the law of cause and effect. Effects occur
after the cause, not vice versa. All the laws of physics that have been
found so far have causality built into them. A violation of causality
would signal a major collapse of the foundations of physics. Newtonian mechanics is firmly based on causality. Newton's laws are so allembracing that if you know the location and position of all the
molecules in the universe, you can calculate the future motion of these
atoms. Thus the future is calculable. In principle, Newtonian mechanics states that if you had a large enough computer, you could compute
all future events. According to Newton, the universe is like a gigantic
clock, wound up by God at the beginning of time, and ticking ever
since according to His laws. There is no room for precognition in Newton's theory.
BACKWARD IN TIME
When we discuss Maxwell's theory, however, the scenario becomes
much more complicated. When we solve Maxwell's equations for light,
we find not one but two solutions: a "retarded" wave, which represents
the standard motion of light from one point to another; but also an "advanced" wave, where the light beam goes backward in time. This advanced solution comes from the future and arrives in the past!
For a hundred years when engineers have encountered this "advanced" solution that goes backward in time they have simply dismissed it as a mathematical curiosity. Since the retarded waves so
accurately predicted the behavior of radio, microwaves, TV, radar, and
X-rays, they simply threw the advanced solution out the window. The
PHVSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
Elaborate tests conducted at the Rhine Center seem to suggest that
some people can see the future; that is, they can identify cards before
they are unveiled. But repeated experiments have shown that the effect
is very small, and often disappears when others try to duplicate the results.
In fact, precognition is difficult to reconcile with modern physics,
because it violates causality, the law of cause and effect. Effects occur
after the cause, not vice versa. All the laws of physics that have been
found so far have causality built into them. A violation of causality
would signal a major collapse of the foundations of physics. Newtonian mechanics is firmly based on causality. Newton's laws are so allembracing that if you know the location and position of all the
molecules in the universe, you can calculate the future motion of these
atoms. Thus the future is calculable. In principle, Newtonian mechanics states that if you had a large enough computer, you could compute
all future events. According to Newton, the universe is like a gigantic
clock, wound up by God at the beginning of time, and ticking ever
since according to His laws. There is no room for precognition in Newton's theory.
BACKWARD IN TIME
When we discuss Maxwell's theory, however, the scenario becomes
much more complicated. When we solve Maxwell's equations for light,
we find not one but two solutions: a "retarded" wave, which represents
the standard motion of light from one point to another; but also an "advanced" wave, where the light beam goes backward in time. This advanced solution comes from the future and arrives in the past!
For a hundred years when engineers have encountered this "advanced" solution that goes backward in time they have simply dismissed it as a mathematical curiosity. Since the retarded waves so
accurately predicted the behavior of radio, microwaves, TV, radar, and
X-rays, they simply threw the advanced solution out the window. The