47,842 research outputs found
Spurious, Emergent Laws in Number Worlds
We study some aspects of the emergence of logos from chaos on a basal model
of the universe using methods and techniques from algorithmic information and
Ramsey theories. Thereby an intrinsic and unusual mixture of meaningful and
spurious, emerging laws surfaces. The spurious, emergent laws abound, they can
be found almost everywhere. In accord with the ancient Greek theogony one could
say that logos, the Gods and the laws of the universe, originate from "the
void," or from chaos, a picture which supports the unresolvable/irreducible
lawless hypothesis. The analysis presented in this paper suggests that the
"laws" discovered in science correspond merely to syntactical correlations, are
local and not universal.Comment: 24 pages, invited contribution to "Contemporary Natural Philosophy
and Philosophies - Part 2" - Special Issue of the journal Philosophie
What is quantum in quantum randomness?
It is often said that quantum and classical randomness are of different
nature, the former being ontological and the latter epistemological. However,
so far the question of "What is quantum in quantum randomness", i.e. what is
the impact of quantization and discreteness on the nature of randomness,
remains to answer. In a first part, we explicit the differences between quantum
and classical randomness within a recently proposed ontology for quantum
mechanics based on contextual objectivity. In this view, quantum randomness is
the result of contextuality and quantization. We show that this approach
strongly impacts the purposes of quantum theory as well as its areas of
application. In particular, it challenges current programs inspired by
classical reductionism, aiming at the emergence of the classical world from a
large number of quantum systems. In a second part, we analyze quantum physics
and thermodynamics as theories of randomness, unveiling their mutual
influences. We finally consider new technological applications of quantum
randomness opened in the emerging field of quantum thermodynamics.Comment: This article will appear in Philosophical Transaction A, following
the Royal Society Symposium "Foundations of quantum mechanics and their
impact on Contemporary Society
On the Nature of Intelligence: The Relevance of Statistical Mechanics
A conundrum that results from the normal distribution of intelligence is explored. The conundrum concerns the chief characteristic of intelligence, the ability to find order in the world (or to know the world) on the one hand, and the random processes that are the foundation of the normal distribution on the other. Statistical mechanics is explored to help in understanding the relation between order and randomness in intelligence. In statistical mechanics, ordered phenomena, like temperature or chemical potential, can be derived from random processes, and empirical data indicate that such a relationship between ordered phenomena and random processes must exist as regards intellect. The apparent incongruity in having both order and randomness characterize intelligence is found to be a feature that allows for intelligence to be known without recourse to underpinnings that are independent of the knowing individual. The contrast of ordered processes and random processes indicates that probabilistic knowledge of the world, stemming from the latter processes, is a basis for knowing the world in a fundamental manner, whether the concern is the physical world or mind. It is likely that physiological concomitants involved in the development, and perhaps current operation, of intellect also demonstrate the same relationship between ordered and random phenomena found on a psychological level. On a microscopic level, it is expected that random neurophysiological processes would give rise to ordered patterns of neurophysiological activity on a macroscopic level
On the exit statistics theorem of many particle quantum scattering
We review the foundations of the scattering formalism for one particle
potential scattering and discuss the generalization to the simplest case of
many non interacting particles. We point out that the "straight path motion" of
the particles, which is achieved in the scattering regime, is at the heart of
the crossing statistics of surfaces, which should be thought of as detector
surfaces. We sketch a proof of the relevant version of the many particle flux
across surfaces theorem and discuss what needs to be proven for the foundations
of scattering theory in this context.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures; to appear in the proceedings of the conference
"Multiscale methods in Quantum Mechanics", Accademia dei Lincei, Rome,
December 16-20, 200
A mechanism for randomness
We investigate explicit functions that can produce truly random numbers. We
use the analytical properties of the explicit functions to show that certain
class of autonomous dynamical systems can generate random dynamics. This
dynamics presents fundamental differences with the known chaotic systems. We
present realphysical systems that can produce this kind of random time-series.
We report theresults of real experiments with nonlinear circuits containing
direct evidence for this new phenomenon. In particular, we show that a
Josephson junction coupled to a chaotic circuit can generate unpredictable
dynamics. Some applications are discussed.Comment: Accepted in Physics Letters A (2002). 11 figures (.eps
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