Related papers: Truth, Beauty and Supergravity
Wigner found unreasonable the "effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences". But if the mathematics we use to describe nature is simply a coded expression of our experience then its effectiveness is quite reasonable. Its…
This contribution argues that the notion of time used in the scientific modeling of reality deprives time of its real nature. Difficulties from logic paradoxes to mathematical incompleteness and numerical uncertainty ensue. How can the…
Complexity is a multi-faceted phenomenon, involving a variety of features including disorder, nonlinearity, and self-organisation. We use a recently developed rigorous framework for complexity to understand measures of complexity. We…
In recent years, criticism of the methodology of particle physics beyond the Standard Model has increased, diagnosing too much reliance on aesthetic criteria for theory development and evaluation. Faced with several decades of experimental…
Fairness assumptions are a valuable tool when reasoning about systems. In this paper, we classify several fairness properties found in the literature and argue that most of them are too restrictive for many applications. As an alternative…
Systems design processes are increasingly reliant on simulation models to inform design decisions. A pervasive issue within the systems engineering community is trusting in the models used to make decisions about complex systems. This work…
A standard goal of model evaluation and selection is to find a model that approximates the truth well while at the same time is as parsimonious as possible. In this paper we emphasize the point of view that the models under consideration…
Here I briefly discuss why supersymmetry is considered a leading candidate of physics beyond the standard model. I also highlight the salient features of different supersymmetry breaking models. A few other symmetries, broken or intact,…
Questioning the experimental basis of continuous descriptions of fundamental interactions we discuss classical gravity as an effective continuous first-order approximation of a discrete interaction. The sub-dominant contributions produce a…
The apparent fine-tuning of several fundamental parameters that determine the properties of our Universe and make it hospitable to life is sometimes used as an argument for God from design. I review the concept of cosmic fine-tuning and…
Symmetries and isomorphisms play similar conceptual roles when we consider how models represent physical situations, but they are formally distinct, as two models related by symmetries are not typically isomorphic. I offer a rigorous…
In this essay, I review the importance of languages in the study of reality, following the well-known aphorisms by Galilei, Bohr and many others. The emphasis on these aspects helps us to understand that it is not meaningful to ask if the…
I describe several broad features of a programme to understand gravity as an emergent, long wavelength, phenomenon (like elasticity) and discuss one concrete framework for realizing this paradigm in the backdrop of several recent results.
I argue that data becomes temporarily interesting by itself to some self-improving, but computationally limited, subjective observer once he learns to predict or compress the data in a better way, thus making it subjectively simpler and…
Based on the cosmological principle only, the method of describing the evolution of the Universe, called cosmography, is in fact a kinematics of cosmological expansion. The effectiveness of cosmography lies in the fact that it allows, based…
An approach to modelling the universe based on the requisites of gravitational energy. This model is explained as it relates to the stages of the universal life cycle and the continued existence of the universe as it is known today. The…
This essay aims to summarize the main physical features arising from a new supersymmetric theory of gravitation. Based on preliminary discussions about classical field theory, cosmology, algebra and group theory, and taking formal results…
Finetuning and Naturalness are extra-empirical theory assessments that reflect our expectation how scientific theories should provide an intuitive understanding about the foundations underlying the observed phenomena. Recently, the absence…
Some properties of the world are fixed by physics derived from mathematical symmetries, while others are selected from an ensemble of possibilities. Several successes and failures of ``anthropic'' reasoning in this context are reviewed in…
A specific theoretical framework is important for designing and conducting an experiment, and for interpretation of its results. The field of gravitational physics is expanding, and more clarity is needed. It appears that some popular…