Related papers: Second Life Physics: Virtual, real, or surreal?
To study body ownership and control, illusions that elicit these feelings in non-body objects are widely used. Classically introduced with the Rubber Hand Illusion, these illusions have been replicated more recently in virtual reality and…
The principles of the special theory of relativity are extremely simple. A knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem and an ability to perform the simplest algebraic operations are sufficient to be conversant with the kinematics of the special…
The contributions of this paper are: (1) a taxonomy of the "Realities" (Virtual, Augmented, Mixed, Mediated, etc.), and (2) some new kinds of "reality" that come from nature itself, i.e. that expand our notion beyond synthetic realities to…
We developed a two-day physics class that uses a nearby forest as a teaching location. Using low-cost material, students design and carry out physics projects outside of the usual controlled environment that is a classroom. In this way they…
The theory of regularity is a philosophical perspective in which laws of nature are just descriptions, that is to say, laws of nature do not govern the world. Moreover, according to the theory of regularity, the number of laws of nature…
Seemingly we are not so far from Star Trek's food replicator. Generative artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming an integral part of both science and education, offering not only automation of processes but also the dynamic creation of…
Artificial life is a research field studying what processes and properties define life, based on a multidisciplinary approach spanning the physical, natural and computational sciences. Artificial life aims to foster a comprehensive study of…
I. The arena of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory is the abstract, unobserved and unobservable, M-dimensional formal Hilbert space [not equal to] spacetime. II. The arena of observations and, more generally, of all events (i.e.…
The Lorentz transformation is derived without assuming the existence of Maxwell's equations, or that the speed of light is a constant, or even that light exists. This leads us logically to sonsider the existence of a primal field called…
The main objective of quantum simulation is an in-depth understanding of many-body physics. It is important for fundamental issues (quantum phase transitions, transport, . . . ) and for the development of innovative materials. Analytic…
We assess how physically realistic the ''simulation hypothesis'' for this Universe is, based on physical constraints arising from the link between information and energy, and on known astrophysical constraints. We investigate three cases:…
While intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) can use information from past students to personalize instruction, each new student is unique. Moreover, the education problem is inherently difficult because the learning process is only partially…
The framework of Simulation-to-real learning, i.e, learning policies in simulation and transferring those policies to the real world is one of the most promising approaches towards data-efficient learning in robotics. However, due to the…
This paper introduces an interactive Mixed Reality (MR) experience and artistic inquiry entitled ``Surrealism Me'' which delves into Vil\'em Flusser's critique of media as mediators that often distort human perception of reality and…
Although reinforcement learning (RL) can provide reliable solutions in many settings, practitioners are often wary of the discrepancies between the RL solution and their status quo procedures. Therefore, they may be reluctant to adapt to…
Education, science, in fact the whole society, extensively use images. Between us and the world are the visual displays. Screens, small and large, individual or not, are everywhere. Images are increasingly the 2D substrate of our virtual…
The purpose of this work is to explore a teaching methodology aimed at communicating topics and subjects not typically studied and analyzed in the (Italian) secondary school. We focused specifically on the use of videogames as a…
The necessity of supporting more and more social interaction (and not only the mere information sharing) in online environments is the disruptive force upon which phenomena ascribed to the Web2.0 paradigm continuously bud. People…
The linear mathematics of quantum mechanics gives many versions of reality instead of the single version we perceive, with the perceived version chosen at random according to a probability law. Because of these peculiarities, the theory…
Nature has found one method of organizing living matter, but maybe other options exist -- not yet discovered -- on how to create life. To study the life "as it could be" is the objective of an interdisciplinary field called Artificial Life…