Related papers: An Argument for the Non-Arbitrary Existence Hypoth…
A scientific reasoning system makes decisions using objective evidence in the form of independent experimental trials, propositional axioms, and constraints on the probabilities of events. As a first step towards this goal, we propose a…
We consider an extension of first-order logic with a recursion operator that corresponds to allowing formulas to refer to themselves. We investigate the obtained language under two different systems of semantics, thereby obtaining two…
Subsumption resolution is an expensive but highly effective simplifying inference for first-order saturation theorem provers. We present a new SAT-based reasoning technique for subsumption resolution, without requiring radical changes to…
Probabilistic reasoning systems combine different probabilistic rules and probabilistic facts to arrive at the desired probability values of consequences. In this paper we describe the MESA-algorithm (Maximum Entropy by Simulated Annealing)…
We investigate a new strategy which can defeat the (in)famous Carter's "anthropic" argument against extraterrestrial life and intelligence. In contrast to those already considered by Wilson, Livio, and others, the present approach is based…
Here I argue that the much-discussed Doomsday Argument (DA) has two flaws. Its mathematical flaw stems from applying frequentist probability or faulty Bayesian inference. Its conceptual flaw is assuming that Copernican uniformity applies to…
Prediction with the possibility of abstention (or selective prediction) is an important problem for error-critical machine learning applications. While well-studied in the classification setup, selective approaches to regression are much…
Abductive reasoning aims to find plausible explanations for an event. This style of reasoning is critical for commonsense tasks where there are often multiple plausible explanations. Existing approaches for abductive reasoning in natural…
National Forest Inventories (NFIs) monitor forest attributes across a variety of spatial and temporal scales in a given country. Increased interest in reporting and management at smaller scales has driven NFIs to investigate and adopt small…
Statistical inference on biodiversity has a rich history going back to RA Fisher. An influential ecological theory suggests the existence of a fundamental biodiversity number, denoted $\alpha$, which coincides with the precision parameter…
Discarding undesirable measurement results in Bell experiments opens the detection loophole that prevents a conclusive demonstration of nonlocality. As closing the detection loophole represents a major technical challenge for many practical…
The Simulation Argument has gained significant traction in the public arena. It has offered a hypothesis based on probabilistic analysis of its assumptions that we are likely to exist within a computer simulation. This has been derived from…
Although approaches for handling missing data from longitudinal studies are well-developed when the patterns of missingness are monotone, fewer methods are available for non-monotone missingness. Moreover, the conventional missing at random…
The Great Filter interpretation of Fermi's great silence asserts that $Npq$ is not a very large number, where $N$ is the number of potentially life-supporting planets in the observable universe, $p$ is the probability that a randomly chosen…
Considerable attention has been given to the problem of non-monotonic reasoning in a belief function framework. Earlier work (M. Ginsberg) proposed solutions introducing meta-rules which recognized conditional independencies in a…
The intuition suggested by the Drake equation implies that technology should be less prevalent than biology in the galaxy. However, it has been appreciated for decades in the SETI community that technosignatures could be more abundant,…
In several papers, John Norton has argued that Bayesianism cannot handle ignorance adequately due to its inability to distinguish between neutral and disconfirming evidence. He argued that this inability sows confusion in, e.g., anthropic…
Recent studies reveal striking representational alignment between artificial neural networks (ANNs) and biological brains, leading to proposals that all sufficiently capable systems converge on universal representations of reality. Here, we…
We introduce Gradual Abstract Argumentation for Case-Based Reasoning (Gradual AA-CBR), a data-driven, neurosymbolic classification model in which the outcome is determined by an argumentation debate structure that is learned simultaneously…
A widely accepted definition of intelligence in the context of Artificial Intelligence (AI) still eludes us. Due to our exceedingly rapid development of AI paradigms, architectures, and tools, the prospect of naturally arising AI…