Related papers: Agency cannot be a purely quantum phenomenon
In the classical world one can construct two identical systems which have identical behavior and give identical measurement results. We show this to be impossible in the quantum domain. We prove that after the same quantum measurement two…
Various fundamental phenomena of strongly-correlated quantum systems such as high-$T_c$ superconductivity, the fractional quantum-Hall effect, and quark confinement are still awaiting a universally accepted explanation. The main obstacle is…
Are world models a necessary ingredient for flexible, goal-directed behaviour, or is model-free learning sufficient? We provide a formal answer to this question, showing that any agent capable of generalizing to multi-step goal-directed…
Despite various parallels between quantum states and ordinary information, quantum no-go-theorems have convinced many that there is no realistic framework that might underly quantum theory, no reality that quantum states can represent…
Can free agency be compatible with determinism? Compatibilists argue that the answer is yes, and it has been suggested that the computer science principle of "computational irreducibility" sheds light on this compatibility. It implies that…
The influence of additional information on the decision making of agents, who are interacting members of a society, is analyzed within the mathematical framework based on the use of quantum probabilities. The introduction of social…
For machine agents to successfully interact with humans in real-world settings, they will need to develop an understanding of human mental life. Intuitive psychology, the ability to reason about hidden mental variables that drive observable…
The linear superposition principle in quantum mechanics is essential for several no-go theorems such as the no-cloning theorem, the no-deleting theorem and the no-superposing theorem. It remains an open problem of finding general forbidden…
Heat and work in thermodynamics refer to the measurement of changes in energy content of external bodies (baths and agents). We discuss the implications of quantum mechanics on the possibility to measure work in a mesoscopic context. The…
It is well known that (non-orthogonal) pure states cannot be cloned so one may ask: how much or what kind of additional (quantum) information is needed to supplement one copy of a quantum state in order to be able to produce two copies of…
New advances in large scale distributed systems have amazingly offered complex functionalities through parallelism of simple and rudimentary components. The key issue in cooperative control of multi-agent systems is the synthesis of local…
As artificial agents become increasingly capable, what internal structure is *necessary* for an agent to act competently under uncertainty? Classical results show that optimal control can be *implemented* using belief states or world…
Scientific theories need to be testable by observations, say using Bayes' theorem. A complete theory needs at least the three parts of dynamical laws for specified physical variables, the correct solution of the dynamical laws (boundary…
This paper develops an agent-centric account of measurement that treats the preferred-basis problem is fundamentally perspectival. On this view, the system--apparatus--environment decomposition and the observables that are apt to become…
In physical theories, boundary or initial conditions play the role of selecting special situations which can be described by a theory with its general laws. Cosmology has long been suspected to be different in that its fundamental theory…
Any scientific attempt to explain consciousness is tasked with reconciling the third person objective perspective of science with our first person subjective experience of the world. A good point of departure is to consider situations in…
Universality of quantum mechanics -- its applicability to physical systems of quite different nature and scales -- indicates that quantum behavior can be a manifestation of general mathematical properties of systems containing…
We identify "proper quantum computation" with computational processes that cannot be efficiently simulated on a classical computer. For optical quantum computation, we establish "no-go" theorems for classes of quantum optical experiments…
The nature of quantum computation is discussed. It is argued that, in terms of the amount of information manipulated in a given time, quantum and classical computation are equally efficient. Quantum superposition does not permit quantum…
It is generally believed that entanglement is essential for quantum computing. We present here a few simple examples in which quantum computing without entanglement is better than anything classically achievable, in terms of the reliability…