Above the quantum level, thermodynamics kicks in and thus we experience time in only one direction; this is simply a limitation we have because we aren't quantum. Below the quantum level thermodynamics doesn't work quite the same way and neither does time--sometimes it flows backwards, as evidenced by the fact that a positron moving forward in time is mathematically equivalent to an electron going backwards in time.
Here is where things get weird, though. From a certain point of view we might say that the helium atom, existing in its non-linear temporal state, traveled backwards in time (once it realized that it was being watched) and then decided which way it would be observed in the future. Of course that isn't entirely accurate since helium atoms cannot make decisions (well, at least they can't think about them before making them). That being said, it does appear, given the way the experiment was originally designed and how it was carried out, that making observations *now* causes retroactive decisions to be made at a point in the past.
I would also be interested to have this experiment performed about 1,000 times then see whether or not the helium atom has a roughly 50/50 distribution of its particle-like and wave-like behaviors or if one happens more often than not.
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Here is where things get weird, though. From a certain point of view we might say that the helium atom, existing in its non-linear temporal state, traveled backwards in time (once it realized that it was being watched) and then decided which way it would be observed in the future. Of course that isn't entirely accurate since helium atoms cannot make decisions (well, at least they can't think about them before making them). That being said, it does appear, given the way the experiment was originally designed and how it was carried out, that making observations *now* causes retroactive decisions to be made at a point in the past.
I would also be interested to have this experiment performed about 1,000 times then see whether or not the helium atom has a roughly 50/50 distribution of its particle-like and wave-like behaviors or if one happens more often than not.
If I hadn't checked, maybe it would have?