Related papers: Modes of experience in a superposed world

Macroscopic realism is a classical worldview that a macroscopic system is always determinately in one of the two or more macroscopically distinguishable states available to it, and so is never in a superposition of these states. The…

We consider the characterization of quantum superposition states beyond the pattern "dead and alive". We propose a measure that is applicable to superpositions of multiple macroscopically distinct states, superpositions with different…

Various effects in human cognition, often considered `non-classical', have been argued to be most naturally modelled by quantum-like models of decision making. We extend this approach to describe models of cognition and decision-making in…

An interpretation and re-formulation of modern physics which removes the presumption of the space-time continuum, and bases physical theory on a small number of rational and empirical principles. After briefly describing the philosophical…

The ability to combine linguistic guidance from others with direct experience is central to human development, enabling safe and rapid learning in new environments. How do people integrate these two sources of knowledge, and how might AI…

Contrary to an oft-made claim, there can be observational distinctions (say for the expansion of the universe or the cosmological constant) between "single-history" quantum theories and "many-worlds" quantum theories. The distinctions occur…

A broad range of on-line behaviors are mediated by interfaces in which people make choices among sets of options. A rich and growing line of work in the behavioral sciences indicate that human choices follow not only from the utility of…

We derive stochastic master equations for a quantum system interacting with a Bose field prepared in a superposition of continuous-mode coherent states. To determine a conditional evolution of the quantum system we use a collision model…

It is often argued that bottom-up causation under a physicalist, reductionist worldview precludes free will in the libertarian sense. On the one hand, the paradigm of classical mechanics makes determinism inescapable, while on the other,…

After centuries of research, how subjective experience relates to physical phenomena remains unclear. Recent strategies attempt to identify the physical correlates of experience. Less studied is how scientists eliminate the "spurious"…

The interaction between two parts in a compound quantum system may be reconsidered more completely than before and some new understandings and conclusions different from current quantum mechanics are obtained, including the conservation law…

The capability of imagining internally with a mental model of the world is vitally important for human cognition. If a machine intelligent agent can learn a world model to create a "dream" environment, it can then internally ask what-if…

In this paper we intend to discuss the importance of providing a physical representation of quantum superpositions which goes beyond the mere reference to mathematical structures and measurement outcomes. This proposal goes in the opposite…

We propose a toy-model theory, that mimics various characteristic features of quantum mechanics. Unlike the toy-models previously studied in the literature, our toy-model allows for an observer to have a full knowledge of a system's real…

A brief review is given of the present state of an approach to consistency between basic quantum mechanics and a unique macroscopic reality, with no assumption of branching in the state of the universe. The main new idea consists in the…

Physicists use quantum models to describe the behavior of physical systems. Quantum models owe their success to their interpretability, to their relation to probabilistic models (quantization of classical models) and to their high…

Quantum cognition often explains order effects, contextuality, and violations of the law of total probability by replacing classical probability with quantum probability on a fixed event structure. This paper proposes a different…

Deeper insight leads to better practice. We show how the study of the foundations of quantum mechanics has led to new pictures of open systems and to a method of computation which is practical and can be used where others cannot. We…

The superposition principle is the cornerstone of quantum mechanics, leading to a variety of genuinely quantum effects. Whether the principle applies also to macroscopic systems or, instead, there is a progressive breakdown when moving to…

The debate on the nature of quantum probabilities in relation to Quantum Non Locality has elevated Quantum Mechanics to the level of an "Operational Epistemic Theory". In such context the quantum superposition principle has an extraneous…