Related papers: We Have Never Been Sophisticated
Starting from general considerations, some ideas of the philosopher Derek Parfit on consciousness, self-awareness, and reductionism are briefly reviewed and critically examined from the standpoint of physics.
Any representational enterprise must omit variation in order to function. NASA still uses Newtonian mechanics, though Einstein superseded Newton, and the standard picture of scientific progress cannot explain how. A description that omitted…
In this paper, it is argued that theoretical physics is more akin to an organism than to a rigid structure.It is in this sense that the epithet, "sick", applies to it. It is argued that classical physics is a model of a healthy science, and…
This thesis is divided into two parts. In the first part we study completely integrable systems, and their underlying structures, in detail. We study their deformation theory and the different equivalence relations surrounding it. We…
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,…
Wigner's famous and influential claim that mathematics is "unreasonably effective" in physics is founded on unreasonable assumptions about the nature of mathematics and its independence of physics. Here I argue that what is surprising is…
We critique the measure of complexity introduced by Shiner, Davison, and Landsberg in Ref. [1]. In particular, we point out that it is over-universal, in the sense that it has the same dependence on disorder for structurally distinct…
In this chapter we describe a selection of mathematical techniques and results that suggest interesting links between the theory of gratings and the theory of homogenization, including a brief introduction to the latter. By no means do we…
We give a short, critical review of the issue of decoherence. We establish the most general framework in which decoherence can be discussed, how it can be quantified and how it can be measured. We focus on environment induced decoherence…
We find it necessary to advise the interested and active instructor of Physics on the wrongness of some computations in the aforementioned article. Surprisingly, the Journal refuses to even publish an erratum on the paper, which naturally…
Symmetries play a major role in physics, in particular since the work by E. Noether and H. Weyl in the first half of last century. Herein, we briefly review their role by recalling how symmetry changes allow to conceptually move from…
Symmetry under a particular class of non-strictly canonical transformation may be used to identify, and subsequently excise degrees of freedom which do not contribute to the closure of the algebra of dynamical observables. Such redundant…
Some recent philosophical debate about persistence has focussed on an argument against perdurantism that discusses rotating perfectly homogeneous discs (the `rotating discs argument'; RDA). The argument has been mostly discussed by…
Biological intelligence is remarkable in its ability to produce complex behaviour in many diverse situations through data efficient, generalisable and transferable skill acquisition. It is believed that learning "good" sensory…
Symmetry is one of the most general and useful concepts in physics. A theory or a system that has a symmetry is fundamentally constrained by it. The same constraints do not apply when the symmetry is broken. The quantitative determination…
We present a theory of information expressed solely in terms of which transformations of physical systems are possible and which are impossible - i.e. in constructor-theoretic terms. Although it includes conjectured laws of physics that are…
A well-known topic within the philosophy of physics is the problem of fine-tuning: the fact that the universal constants seem to take non-arbitrary values in order for live to thrive in our Universe. In this paper we will talk about this…
The fundamental physical theories that interpret and explain behaviour of matter in nature are dependent on several unobservables and insensibles in their construction. While a rigorous natural philosophy cannot take them for granted, there…
While speed is an ubiquitous concept in physics, its inverse - known as slowness - sometimes proves more relevant. We discuss some case studies within classical physics where such a notion is fruitful, before exploring how it can be…
Paradoxes are a very frequent phenomenon in processes of thought which strive towards the intelectual and cognitive shifts. They occur in all areas of human spiritual activites. What we are interested here in, are the paradoxes in physics.…