Does Quantum Mechanics Breed Larger, More Intricate Quantum Theories? The Case for Experience-Centric Quantum Theory and the Interactome of Quantum Theories

We pose and address the radical question that whether quantum mechanics, known for its firm internal structure and enormous empirical success, carries in itself the genome of larger quantum theories which have higher internal intricacies and phenomenological versatilities. That is, on the basic level of closed quantum systems and regardless of interpretational aspects, whether standard quantum theory (SQT) harbors quantum theories with context-based deformed principles or structures, having definite predictive power within broader scopes. We answer the question in affirmative following complementary evidence and reasoning arising from quantum-computation-based quantum simulation and fundamental, general, abstract rationales in the frameworks of information theory, fundamental or functional emergence, and participatory agency. In this light, as we show, one is led to the recently proposed experience-centric quantum theory (ECQT), which is a larger and richer theory of quantum behaviors with drastically generalized quantum dynamics. ECQT allows the quantum information of the closed quantum system's developed state history to continually contribute to defining manybody interactions, Hamiltonians, and even internal elements and ``particles'' of the total system. Hence the unitary evolutions are continually impacted and become guidable by the agent-system's experience. The intrinsic interplay of unitarity and non-Markovianity in ECQT brings about a host of diverse behavioral phases, which concurrently infuse closed and open quantum system characteristics and even surpasses the theory of open systems in SQT. In the broader perspective, an upshot of our investigation is the existence of the quantum interactome--the interactive landscape of all coexisting, independent context-based quantum theories which emerge from inferential participatory agencies--and its predictive phenomenological utility.Comment: 54 page

New Foundation in the Sciences: Physics without sweeping infinities under the rug

It is widely known among the Frontiers of physics, that “sweeping under the rug” practice has been quite the norm rather than exception. In other words, the leading paradigms have strong tendency to be hailed as the only game in town. For example, renormalization group theory was hailed as cure in order to solve infinity problem in QED theory. For instance, a quote from Richard Feynman goes as follows: “What the three Nobel Prize winners did, in the words of Feynman, was to get rid of the infinities in the calculations. The infinities are still there, but now they can be skirted around . . . We have designed a method for sweeping them under the rug. [1] And Paul Dirac himself also wrote with similar tune: “Hence most physicists are very satisfied with the situation. They say: Quantum electrodynamics is a good theory, and we do not have to worry about it any more. I must say that I am very dissatisfied with the situation, because this so-called good theory does involve neglecting infinities which appear in its equations, neglecting them in an arbitrary way. This is just not sensible mathematics. Sensible mathematics involves neglecting a quantity when it turns out to be small—not neglecting it just because it is infinitely great and you do not want it!”[2] Similarly, dark matter and dark energy were elevated as plausible way to solve the crisis in prevalent Big Bang cosmology. That is why we choose a theme here: New Foundations in the Sciences, in order to emphasize the necessity to introduce a new set of approaches in the Sciences, be it Physics, Cosmology, Consciousness etc

Numerical Simulations

This book will interest researchers, scientists, engineers and graduate students in many disciplines, who make use of mathematical modeling and computer simulation. Although it represents only a small sample of the research activity on numerical simulations, the book will certainly serve as a valuable tool for researchers interested in getting involved in this multidisciplinary field. It will be useful to encourage further experimental and theoretical researches in the above mentioned areas of numerical simulation

Synthesis and characterisation of hydrogels with controlled microstructure and enhanced mechanical properties

For the application of advanced hydrogel-based artificial muscle systems, conventional polymeric hydrogels usually suffer from various limitations such as structural inhomogeneity and poor mechanical strengths. Thus, improving the mechanical strength of a specific hydrogel system while maintaining its other useful properties become increasingly important. In this project, three different approaches were employed to improve the mechanical properties of hydrogels though microstructural control, including physical cross-links, copolymerisation, and interpenetrating systems. Analytical tools such as FTIR and XRD were used to confirm the success of sample preparation. Morphological SEM characterisations were applied to reveal direct graphic information on hydrogels microstructures. Equilibrium water swelling tests as well as uniaxial compression measurements were conducted to evaluate the influences of various experimental parameters on the hydrogels water-holding and mechanical properties. The physical cross-linker approach was proved to be successful since comparable swelling capacities and dramatically enhanced mechanical strength were achieved in nanocomposite systems in comparison with conventional chemically cross-linked gel systems, due to the presence of flexible cross-linking points and the multifunctional cross-linker role played by clay. The copolymerisation approach, both between two neutral monomers and between one neutral and the other ionic monomer, was unsuccessful in terms of mechanical property enhancement due to the low cross-linking density as a result of the dominate competition of copolymerisation rather than cross-lining kinetics. The interpenetrating approach was concluded as successful since hugely improved mechanical toughness and slightly reduced swelling capacities were observed in most IPN gel systems

Uterine time and subjectivities: an ethnographic account of the uterus in online body-talk and other articulations of reproductive justice in South African feminist publics

The uterus is a largely underrepresented and underknown entity in everyday discourses of bodyhood and is usually only spoken of in specialised and/or intimate contexts. This is, however, changing in contemporary popular feminist culture and spaces, especially across networked publics and social media. In South African public life, there is an emerging intimate public where feminists convene and engage in discussion around various issues of concern, in and across various media spaces, in particular social media platforms like Twitter. In the context of increased public focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in public health and social justice conversations, this research asks how young people's personal experiences and feelings about the uterus are affected by and mediated through public discourses about reproductive health and justice, intergenerational cultural expectations of the uterine body, and vernacular expressions of body-talk that are amplified and circulated in intimate publics like South African Feminist Twitter. Drawing on a multimodal ‘patchwork' ethnographic enquiry (Gökçe and Watanabe, 2022) that aimed to trace the uterus as an entity that comes to matter in various different, but underrecognized ways, research was conducted between December 2019 and January 2021, during covid-related lockdowns. Methods included virtual ethnography on/via Twitter, an online qualitative survey that was disseminated across my broader Twitter network, an arts-informed feminist workshop engaging with depictions of the uterus in society and popular culture and discussions of personal narratives. The feminist vernaculars and body-talk that circulate and are amplified online emphasise negative affects and the “ugly feelings” that people in this public associate with the uterus. Menarche, the first menstrual period, stood out in personal narratives as the beginning of ‘uterine time', that is, the beginning of one's subjective awareness of and interaction with the societal expectations attached to the uterus. The messaging that young menstruators received from elders about their bodies predominantly positioned the physiological change as triggering a social change in which one's personhood is imbricated with risk and danger. What people say about the uterus, both publicly online and privately, suggests the emergence and propagation of a generational feminist vernacular of body-talk that takes on a ‘radical' character through descriptions of organs exerting violence and affective injury. In this generational vernacular, feminist youth describe the organ mainly as a conduit of cisheteropatriarchal violence and as an embodiment of what Gqola (2021) terms the Female Fear Factory, and purposefully emphasise antagonistic relations of the uterus. I show how common vernacular expressions and epithets contribute to the production of collective orientations to the uterus through affective contagion. For many young people with uteruses, the organ is experienced as invoking a sense of personal responsibility for a (gestational) reproductive future which may or may not materialise but is nevertheless inscribed with a host of intergenerational sociocultural expectations. The thesis examines the key themes of expectation, speculation and anticipation that emerged in the research as as dominant modes of feeling that characterise uterine subjectivities, or what it means to have a uterus. Together these modes form a particular subset of affective-temporal orientations to the future (as opposed to hope, destiny and potentiality). I argue that this is an indicator of the marked sense of anxiety that accompanies contemporary life and, for many feminists on Twitter, seems to be embodied in their subjective experiences of the uterus

2011 GREAT Day Program

SUNY Geneseo’s Fifth Annual GREAT Day.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/program-2007/1005/thumbnail.jp