About Randos

1. What is this experiment about?

This experiment is designed to explore whether human intention can influence a random process. In each session, users choose a target outcome (0 or 1) and"wish" for that number while a random number generator produces a sequence of values over a fixed time period (e.g., one minute).

Intention-based random number experiments? What's the deal?

Interest in the potential influence of human intention on random systems dates back several decades. Notable research efforts include:

• Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) Lab: Conducted experiments to see if focused human intention could affect the output of random number generators.
• Global Consciousness Project: Monitored worldwide events using random number generators, hypothesizing that collective human emotion might cause deviations from randomness.

These studies, while controversial, sparked significant public and scientific interest in mind-matter interactions. Did these studies prove anything? It depends who you ask. The effect, in my opinion, cannot be ruled out, but it also can't be definitevely proven. This experiment is a fun way to explore the idea for yourself in a controlled environment.

Dig a little deeper into a summary of this research by reading the 1989 paper Evidence for consciousness-related anomalies in random physical systems by Dean Radin and Roger Nelson. An additional meta analysis (a study of the studies) can be found in the 2006 paper Examining Psychokinesis: The Interaction of Human Intention With Random Number Generators—A Meta-Analysis by Bösch, Steinkamp, and Boller.

3. How are scores calculated?

The score is determined by comparing the number of times your wished-for outcome appears against its opposite. For example:

A positive score means your wished-for outcome appeared more frequently, while a negative score indicates that the opposite outcome occurred more often. For instance, if you wished for 0 and the session yielded 10 zeros and 9 ones, your score would be +1. High scores mean those people are getting numbers they wish for.

Sessions with no 'target' number selected will not be included in the leaderboard, but they do serve a purpose in the experiment. These sessions are used to calculate the baseline score for each session length by serving as a control.

4. Verifiable Randomness

To ensure the integrity and transparency of our experiment, we use cryptographically secure and verifiable randomness for generating numbers:

• Drand Network: We use the public randomness beacon from drand.love to obtain verifiable, unpredictable, and unbiased random values.
• Cryptographic Hashing: Each random value is derived using SHA-256 cryptographic hashing that combines the drand randomness with a timestamp and a unique user identifier.
• Verification Data: All sessions store detailed verification data including exact timestamps for each number generated, which can be used by anyone to independently verify that the random values were generated fairly and weren't manipulated.

This approach ensures that each random number generated during your session is: