Global Consciousness: Manifesting Meaningful Structure in Random Data

Abstract

The Global Consciousness Project (GCP) is a long-term experiment using a world-spanning network of physical random number generators to collect data continuously, 24/7, since 1998. We have recorded parallel sequences of data from the network, consisting of trials of 200 bits recorded each second at each node and sent to archiving servers in Princeton, NJ. A formal experiment ran for 17 years and comprised 500 replications of fully specified and pre-registered event analyses. These tested a general hypothesis that engaging events of deep interest to large numbers of people around the world would correspond to departures of the random data from expectation. Compounded results across the 500 events confirmed the hypothesis (Z = 7.31) and provided a sound basis for further analysis to help understand the effects. A number of explanatory propositions have been suggested, of which two stand out: a field-like model and an experimenter effect model. In this paper we consider several independent analyses and applications using GCP data, including analyses that examine all the data, not just the identified formal events. Neuroscience tools for assessing evoked response potentials (ERP) are applied to the GCP data to look for possible structure from a stimulus-response perspective. All of these additional analyses and applications identify structure that cannot be explained by an experimenter effect or goal orientation model. They are, however, naturally encompassed by field-like models.