Related papers: Less is Different: Emergence and Reduction Reconci…
The possibility of consistency between the basic quantum principles and reduction (wave function reduction) is reexamined. The mathematical description of an organized macroscopic device is constructed explicitly as a convenient tool for…
The motion of pedestrian crowds (e.g. for simulation of an evacuation situation) can be modeled as a multi-body system of self driven particles with repulsive interaction. We use a few simple situations to determine the simplest allowed…
Mathematics is usually regarded as a kind of language. The essential behavior of physical phenomena can be expressed by mathematical laws, providing descriptions and predictions. In the present essay I argue that, although mathematics can…
Can there be independent higher level laws of nature if everything is reducible to the fundamental laws of physics? The computer science notion of level of abstraction explains why there can -- illustrating how computational thinking can…
We study logical reduction (factorization) of relations into relations of lower arity by Boolean or relative products that come from applying conjunctions and existential quantifiers to predicates, i.e. by primitive positive formulas of…
It is a widespread belief that results like G\"odel's incompleteness theorems or the intrinsic randomness of quantum mechanics represent fundamental limitations to humanity's strive for scientific knowledge. As the argument goes, there are…
The number of recurrent events before a terminating event is often of interest. For instance, death terminates an individual's process of rehospitalizations and the number of rehospitalizations is an important indicator of economic cost. We…
Quantum mechanics marks a radical departure from the classical understanding of Nature, fostering an inherent randomness which forbids a deterministic description; yet the most fundamental departure arises from something different. As shown…
Transformers have recently been shown to be capable of reliably performing logical reasoning over facts and rules expressed in natural language, but abductive reasoning - inference to the best explanation of an unexpected observation - has…
Although living organisms are affected by many interrelated and unidentified variables, this complexity does not automatically impose a fundamental limitation on statistical inference. Nor need one invoke such complexity as an explanation…
The universal concept of complexity by the dynamic redundance paradigm and the ensuing concept of extended dynamic fractality (physics/9806002) are applied here to higher levels of complexity corresponding to living systems. After recalling…
This paper argues that the traditional opposition between determinism and indeterminism in physics is representational rather than ontological. Deterministic-stochastic dualities are available in principle, and arise in a non-contrived way…
Contrary to classical semantics, the disjunction of two experimental propositions relating to pure states of a quantum system ("quantum propositions" for short) can be true even in the case where neither disjunct is true. This suggests that…
Non-linear renewal theory is extended to include random walks perturbed by both a slowly changing sequence and a stationary one. Main results include a version of the Key Renewal Theorem, a derivation of the limiting distribution of the…
The chemical reactions are very complex, and include oscillation, condensation, catalyst and self-organization, etc. In these case changes of entropy may increase or decrease. The second law of thermodynamics is based on an isolated system…
Learning is a distinctive feature of intelligent behaviour. High-throughput experimental data and Big Data promise to open new windows on complex systems such as cells, the brain or our societies. Yet, the puzzling success of Artificial…
The Abstraction Refinement Model has been widely adopted since it was firstly proposed many decades ago. This powerful model of software evolution process brings important properties into the system under development, properties such as the…
Replication studies estimate the replicability rate of scientific results by aggregating binary verdicts of experiments. Exact replications are rarely attainable, so most replication sequences are non-exact. Experiments differ in ways that…
The fluctuation theorems have remained one of the cornerstones in the study of systems that are driven far out of equilibrium, and they provide strong constraints on the fraction of trajectories that behave atypically in light of the second…
In physics, there is the prevailing intuition that we are part of a unique external world, and that the goal of physics is to understand and describe this world. This assumption of the fundamentality of objective reality is often seen as a…