Related papers: The Plight of `I Am'
This paper is a review of our recent work on three notorious problems of non-relativistic quantum mechanics: realist interpretation, quantum theory of classical properties and the problem of quantum measurement. A considerable progress has…
I propose that qualia are physical because they are directly observable, and revisit the contentious link between consciousness and quantum measurements from a new perspective -- one that does not rely on observers or wave function collapse…
This book is a philosopher's introduction to the idea that our universe is just one of many universes. I present and assess three versions of the idea: one version from philosophy, and two from physics. In short, they are: all the logically…
This pseudo-paper consists of excerpts drawn from two of my quantum-email samizdats. Section 1 draws a picture of a physical world whose essence is ``Darwinism all the way down.'' Section 2 outlines how quantum theory should be viewed in…
From its earliest days nearly a century ago, quantum mechanics has proven itself to be a tremendously accurate yet intellectually unsatisfying theory to many. Not the least of its problems is that it is a theory about the results of…
A satisfactory resolution of the persistent quantum measurement problem remains stubbornly unresolved in spite of an overabundance of efforts of many prominent scientists over the decades. Among others, one key element is considered yet to…
The difficult issues related to the interpretation of quantum mechanics and, in particular, the "measurement problem" are revisited using as motivation the process of generation of structure from quantum fluctuations in inflationary…
A collection of short expository essays by the author on various topics in quantum mechanics, quantum cosmology, and physics in general.
Motivated by some recent news, a journalist asks a group of physicists: "What's the meaning of the violation of Bell's inequality?" One physicist answers: "It means that non-locality is an established fact". Another says: "There is no…
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…
I give a pedagogical explanation of what it is about quantization that makes general relativity go from being a nearly perfect classical theory to a very problematic quantum one. I also explain why some quantization of gravity is…
The purpose of this project is to outline various philosophies on the metaphysics of mathematics that have been prominent since the time of Cantor, highlighting some biographical aspects that have influenced these ideas as well. The main…
The problem of quantum gravity is treated from a radically new viewpoint based on a detailed mathematical analysis of what the constitution of physical space is, which has been carried out by Michel Bounias and the author. The approach…
The extravagances of quantum mechanics never fail to enrich daily the debate around natural philosophy. Entanglement, non-locality, collapse, many worlds, many minds, and subjectivism have challenged generations of thinkers. Its approach…
This survey tries to investigate the truths and deficiencies of prevalent philosophy about Uncertainty Relations (UR) and Quantum Measurements (QMS). The respective philosophy, known as being eclipsed by unfinished controversies, is…
Physicists and philosophers alike have pondered the measurement problem in quantum mechanics since the beginning of the theory nearly a century ago. Marcel Reginatto and I (2013) have made the case as have many others, Niels Bohr among…
This article looks at philosophical aspects and questions that modern astrophysical research gives rise to. Other than cosmology, astrophysics particularly deals with understanding phenomena and processes operating at "intermediate" cosmic…
This paper gives an overview from the perspective of Lie group theory of some of the recent advances in the rapidly expanding research area of quantum entanglement. This paper is a written version of the last of eight one hour lectures…
In this short note I reply to criticisms of an argument in my paper [1] that appear in comment [2]. I refer the reader to section 4 of [1] in which I described the scenario of a Gedankenexperiment on which is based the argument criticized…
A recent proposal for quantizing gravity is investigated for self consistency. There are well-known difficulties in dealing with Einstein gravity when resorting to the perturbative techniques of quantum field theory. This however does not…