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The origins of life stands among the great open scientific questions of our time. While a number of proposals exist for possible starting points in the pathway from non-living to living matter, these have so far not achieved states of…

Populations and Evolution · Quantitative Biology 2017-05-24 Sara I. Walker

One would not think that thought experiments could matter to nature, for they are a humble human device. Yet quantum mechanics very naturally frames thought experiments (as distinct from precisely defining what exists). They exemplify the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 Donald McCartor

Our everyday experiences support the hypothesis that physical systems exist independently of the act of observation. Concordant theories are characterized by the objective realism assumption whereby the act of measurement simply reveals…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2013-04-05 Jayne Thompson , Pawel Kurzynski , Su-Yong Lee , Akihito Soeda , Dagomir Kaszlikowski

This book is a philosopher's introduction to the idea that our universe is just one of many universes. I present and assess three versions of the idea: one version from philosophy, and two from physics. In short, they are: all the logically…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2025-05-30 Jeremy Butterfield

To understand the foundations of quantum mechanics, we have to think carefully about how theoretical concepts are rooted in -- and limited by -- the nature of experience, as Bohr attempted to show. Geometrical pictures of physical phenomena…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 Doug Bilodeau

It is suggested that quantum mechanics is not fundamental but emerges from classical information theory applied to causal horizons. The path integral quantization and quantum randomness can be derived by considering information loss of…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2011-03-04 Jae-Weon Lee

Recently we proposed the linguistic interpretation of quantum mechanics (called quantum and classical measurement theory, or quantum language), which was characterized as a kind of metaphysical and linguistic turn of the Copenhagen…

Other Statistics · Statistics 2016-11-25 Shiro Ishikawa

Einstein's special theory of relativity starts with assumptions about how observations conducted in relatively moving inertial frames must compare. From these assumptions, conclusions can be drawn regarding the laws of physics in any one…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2015-07-14 Allan Walstad

I argue for a full mathematisation of the physical theory, including its axioms, which must contain no physical primitives. In provocative words: "physics from no physics". Although this may seem an oxymoron, it is the royal road to keep…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2018-03-21 Giacomo Mauro D'Ariano

Quantum physics, which describes the strange behavior of light and matter at the smallest scales, is one of the most successful descriptions of reality, yet it is notoriously inaccessible. Here we provide an approachable explanation of…

This book concerns the metasemantics of quantum mechanics (QM). Roughly, it pursues an investigation at the intersection of philosophy of physics and philosophy of language, and it offers a critical analysis of rival explanations of the…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2025-09-12 Iulian D. Toader

This book invites readers to see mathematics not just as formulas and rules, but as the deepest expression of human thought. It begins by exploring the timeless idea of mathematics as a universal language, contrasting its precision with the…

Information Theory · Computer Science 2026-04-20 Bruno Macchiavello

The information-theoretic point of view proposed by Leibniz in 1686 and developed by algorithmic information theory (AIT) suggests that mathematics and physics are not that different. This will be a first-person account of some doubts and…

History and Overview · Mathematics 2007-05-23 G. J. Chaitin

In this short essay it is argued that the "It from Bit" idea is plausible when assuming "generalized bits", resulting from the Kolmogorov superposition theorem, as universal building blocks.

General Physics · Physics 2013-08-15 Joachim J. Wlodarz

The Wigner's Friend thought experiment stands as one of the most intellectually provocative and challenging conceptual puzzles in quantum mechanics. It compels us to confront profound questions concerning the fundamental nature of reality,…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-07-25 Herve Zwirn

The aim of this essay is to analyze the role of quantum mechanics as an inherent characteristic of life. During the last ten years the problem of the origin of life has become an innovative research subject approached by many authors. The…

Other Quantitative Biology · Quantitative Biology 2017-09-19 Juan Campos Quemada

Einstein's most famous equation -- $E=mc^2$ -- generated a short-circuit between the concepts of mass and energy, which also affects other concepts like matter, radiation, and vacuum. Physics currently has a mixture of classical,…

General Physics · Physics 2021-07-21 Luigi Foschini

From its earliest days nearly a century ago, quantum mechanics has proven itself to be a tremendously accurate yet intellectually unsatisfying theory to many. Not the least of its problems is that it is a theory about the results of…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2018-05-08 Ian T. Durham

In the quantum Bayesian (or QBist) conception of quantum theory, "quantum measurement" is understood not as a comparison of something pre-existent with a standard, but instead indicative of the creation of something new in the universe:…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2014-12-17 Christopher Fuchs , Ruediger Schack

In this article a notion of information is presented which stresses the contextuality of quantum objects and their measurement. Mathematically this is reached by a quantification of the quantum mechanical surplus knowledge which has been…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 Gesche Pospiech