Related papers: Are There Many Worlds?
A simple proof is given that the probabilities of observations in a large universe are not given directly by Born's rule as the expectation values of projection operators in a global quantum state of the entire universe. An alternative…
Oscillations are observed in all branches of science and culture, ranging from the behavior of ele-mentary particles, atoms, molecules in simple chemical or physical systems or even in complex organisms, up to oscillations of the behavior…
In this work, we consider a binary hypothesis testing problem involving a group of human decision-makers. Due to the nature of human behavior, each human decision-maker observes the phenomenon of interest sequentially up to a random length…
Religiosity is one of the most important sociological aspects of populations. All religions may evolve in their beliefs and adapt to the society developments. A religion is a social variable, like a language or wealth, to be studied like…
One purpose -- quite a few thinkers would say the main purpose -- of seeking knowledge about the world is to enhance our ability to make good decisions. An item of knowledge that can make no conceivable difference with regard to anything we…
A central open problem of quantum physics is to reconcile theory with experience. In this work I present a framework for studying distinct modes of experience in a superposed world. A modes of experience is characterized by how the world,…
Given the importance of clusters to the fields of cosmology and galaxy evolution, it is critical to understand how the cluster detection process affects (biases) ones scientific conclusions derived from a given cluster sample. I review the…
From an anthropological point of view, the whole concept of a "path of progress" in astronomical discovery is anathema, since it implicitly downgrades other cultural perspectives, such as the many "indigenous cosmologies" that still exist…
Several theoretical frameworks have been proposed to explain observed biodiversity patterns, ranging from the classical niche-based theories, mainly employing a continuous formalism, to neutral theories, based on statistical mechanics of…
Many measurements at collider experiments study physics candidates that are a subset of a collision event. The presence of multiple such candidates in a given event can cause raw biases which are large compared to typical statistical…
We describe a statistical hypothesis test for the presence of a signal. The test allows the researcher to fix the signal location and/or width a priori, or perform a search to find the signal region that maximizes the signal. The background…
Many widely used models amount to an elaborate means of making up numbers--but once a number has been produced, it tends to be taken seriously and its source (the model) is rarely examined carefully. Many widely used models have little…
``Constants of Nature'' and cosmological parameters may in fact be variables related to some slowly-varying fields. In models of eternal inflation, such fields will take different values in different parts of the universe. Here I show how…
The discovery of a biosphere on another planet would transform how we view ourselves, and our planet Earth, in relation to the rest of the cosmos. We now know Earth is one planet among eight circling our sun; our sun is part of a swirling…
Since its emergence, quantum mechanics has been a challenge for an understanding of reality which is based on our intuition in a classical world. Nevertheless, it has often been tried to impose this understanding of reality on quantum…
Recent contributions address the problem of language coexistence as that of two species competing to aggregate speakers, thus focusing on the dynamics of linguistic traits across populations. They draw inspiration from physics and biology…
In this paper, we suppose that the universe has an information processing layer, which coveys the informational contents accompanying the physical events. In this manner, universe is considered to be composed of several associative layers…
Suppose an experimentalist wishes to verify that his apparatus produces entangled quantum states. A finite amount of data cannot conclusively demonstrate entanglement, so drawing conclusions from real-world data requires statistical…
In the age of ever increasing demand for big data and data analytics, a question of collecting the data becomes fundamental. What and how to collect the data is essential as it has direct impact on decision making, system operation and…
A long and intense debate in philosophy is concerned with the question whether there can be haecceistic differences between possible worlds, that is, nonqualitative differences that only arise from different de re representations. According…