Related papers: Indeterminism and Randomness Through Physics
Recent tremendous development of quantum information theory led to a number of quantum technological projects, e.g., quantum random generators. This development stimulates a new wave of interest in quantum foundations. One of the most…
There are countless examples in the history of science that not only were the laws of physics often incomplete and more limited in their domain of validity than was realized, but at times they missed the mark completely. Despite this, our…
The basic problem posed by free will (FW) for physics appears to be not the \textit{physical} one of whether it is compatible with the laws of physics, but the \textit{logical} one of how to consistently define it, since it incorporates the…
It is shown that the phenomenon of irreversibility in many-body and few-body systems can be explained and described within the framework of the concept of direct (not instantaneous) interaction of particles without using probabilistic…
This article examines the subtle relationship between chaos and randomness, two concepts that, although they refer to seemingly unpredictable phenomenon, are based on fundamentally different principles. Chaos manifests in deterministic…
Uncertainty may be taken to characterize inferences, their conclusions, their premises or all three. Under some treatments of uncertainty, the inferences itself is never characterized by uncertainty. We explore both the significance of…
These lectures deal with the problem of inductive inference, that is, the problem of reasoning under conditions of incomplete information. Is there a general method for handling uncertainty? Or, at least, are there rules that could in…
Does the notion of a quantum randomized or nondeterministic algorithm make sense, and if so, does quantum randomness or nondeterminism add power? Although reasonable quantum random sources do not add computational power, the discussion of…
Time can be defined as the duration between events. It is irreversible. When used as a variable in quantifying the changing properties of matter, this irreversibility of time is incompatible with Newton's deterministic mechanics and with…
A source of unpredictability is equivalent to a source of information: unpredictability means not knowing which of a set of alternatives is the actual one; determining the actual alternative yields information. The degree of…
This paper has several objectives. First, it separates randomness from lawlessness and shows why even genuine randomness does not imply lawlessness. Second, it separates the question -why should I call a phenomenon random? (and answers it…
We take causality and uniqueness of events observation as our driving forces. They are built in in the way we define distinct observers, which then require a finite time to communicate between each other. This unavoidably leads to the…
This paper is a sequel to the series of papers [gr-qc/9409010, gr-qc/9505034, gr-qc/9603022, gr-qc/9609035, gr-qc/9609046, gr-qc/9704033, gr-qc/9704038, gr-qc/9708014, gr-qc/9802016]. The problem of the meaning of objective a priori…
Sharp uncertainty relations restricting the values of variances in the position space and in the momentum (wavevector) space are derived. They have the same form $\Delta r\Delta k\ge 5/2$ in the classical theory of light beams, in the…
This article is a brief personal account of the past, present, and future of algorithmic randomness, emphasizing its role in inductive inference and artificial intelligence. It is written for a general audience interested in science and…
Accepting information as a physical category and ascribing to inanimate matter some spirit (consciousness, intelligence) allows to explain quantum-mechanical phenomena, including delayed-choice and EPR-Bohm-Bell experiments, as well as…
We revisit the vexed question of how unpredictability can arise in a deterministic universe, focusing on unitary quantum theory. We discuss why quantum unpredictability is irrelevant for the possibility of what some people call `free-will',…
The hypothesis of the random flow of time is considered. To do this, the concepts of microscopic random time and macroscopic mean time, as well as random modular time are introduced. The possibilities of experimental verification of the…
The physics of matter in the condensed state is concerned with problems in which the number of constituent particles is vastly greater than can be easily comprehended. The inherent physical limitations of the human mind are fundamental and…
Determinism is (roughly) the thesis that the past determines the future. But efforts to define it precisely have exposed deep methodological disagreements. Standard possible-worlds formulations of determinism presuppose an "agreement"…