1 research outputs found
Challenging local realism with human choices
A Bell test is a randomized trial that compares experimental observations
against the philosophical worldview of local realism. A Bell test requires
spatially distributed entanglement, fast and high-efficiency detection and
unpredictable measurement settings. Although technology can satisfy the first
two of these requirements, the use of physical devices to choose settings in a
Bell test involves making assumptions about the physics that one aims to test.
Bell himself noted this weakness in using physical setting choices and argued
that human `free will' could be used rigorously to ensure unpredictability in
Bell tests. Here we report a set of local-realism tests using human choices,
which avoids assumptions about predictability in physics. We recruited about
100,000 human participants to play an online video game that incentivizes fast,
sustained input of unpredictable selections and illustrates Bell-test
methodology. The participants generated 97,347,490 binary choices, which were
directed via a scalable web platform to 12 laboratories on five continents,
where 13 experiments tested local realism using photons, single atoms, atomic
ensembles, and superconducting devices. Over a 12-hour period on 30 November
2016, participants worldwide provided a sustained data flow of over 1,000 bits
per second to the experiments, which used different human-generated data to
choose each measurement setting. The observed correlations strongly contradict
local realism and other realistic positions in bipartite and tripartite
scenarios. Project outcomes include closing the `freedom-of-choice loophole'
(the possibility that the setting choices are influenced by `hidden variables'
to correlate with the particle properties), the utilization of video-game
methods for rapid collection of human generated randomness, and the use of
networking techniques for global participation in experimental science.Comment: This version includes minor changes resulting from reviewer and
editorial input. Abstract shortened to fit within arXiv limit