Quantum Mechanics as Classical Physics

Here I explore a novel no-collapse interpretation of quantum mechanics which combines aspects of two familiar and well-developed alternatives, Bohmian mechanics and the many-worlds interpretation. Despite reproducing the empirical predictions of quantum mechanics, the theory looks surprisingly classical. All there is at the fundamental level are particles interacting via Newtonian forces. There is no wave function. However, there are many worlds.Comment: 25 page

Drawing my office : a study on architectural representation of time.

This thesis is an attempt to recover the temporality of architecture. Although many contemporary architects argue their ways of dealing with time in their architecture, their idea of time is confined within narrow-mined assumptions of science, and their methods are locked in the intrinsic limitation of architectural representation. This thesis criticises the idea of time with only successive instants for its incompetence of accommodating our exuberant experience of architecture, and finds the origin of the problem at the conventional architectural representation which cannot show what we are together with, but just what we can confront. As a "research by design", this thesis is led by a desigri experiment, which is simply to represent my office. The experiment tries to catch the time of my office with various strategies, and the theory follows it while weaving a story by analysing and evaluating it. Theoretical arguments, which have been initiated mainly from Deleuze, grope for their way in the dialogue with drawings. The strategy of drawing experiment is to approve material and conceptual substantiality of drawing so that it can 'work' in time. Concerning the material substantiality, physical size, shape, texture and frame of paper, and various qualities of lines and touches are examined. For the conceptual substantiality, metamorphosis of meaning, isolated figures, vibrating picture ground, and forces in drawing are explored. Ironically, the drawing can manifest my office-ness when it is truly itself. Although the experiment may not be executed in a systematic order, I hope that its audience will generate with the drawings his/her own meanings and sensations, which may 'evolve' into his/her architecture

Locating Oneself in a Quantum World.

There appear to be multiple mathematically and physically distinct theories that successfully reproduce the empirical predictions of quantum mechanics, so-called "interpretations" of quantum mechanics. This dissertation uses the tools of formal epistemology (prominently, the concept of self-locating uncertainty) to investigate which of the theories that have been put forward really are empirically adequate and what alternatives can be devised. The first chapter introduces a novel theory that incorporates aspects of two well-developed alternatives, Bohmian mechanics and the many-worlds interpretation. The quantum wave function can be represented as a field on configuration space, the space of possible ways particles can be arranged. According to Bohmian mechanics a single point in this space is special; it represents the way all of the particles actually are arranged. The newly introduced theory holds that many of the points in configuration space are special; for each, there is a world in which particles are arranged that way. In general, there will be multiple worlds that are so similar that an agent cannot tell directly from experience which they are in; self-locating uncertainty is unavoidable. The next chapter argues for the empirical adequacy of the many-worlds interpretation. In this version of quantum mechanics, processes like quantum measurements cause agents to split into multiple copies and enter periods of self-locating uncertainty. An epistemic principle demarcating which facts about the world one's credences might reasonably depend on (only facts about what's happening around here) is used to derive probabilistic predictions from the many-worlds interpretation. In the third chapter self-locating uncertainty is employed in evaluating another version of quantum mechanics, Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber theory. In this theory, random collapse events prevent our world from splitting into many. If the collapse events are rare, this prevention fails. Other worlds have time to form but most are short-lived. Our survival provides evidence against that kind of theory. The final chapter is an original introduction to relativistic quantum field theory which lays groundwork for evaluating the prospects of extending various interpretations of quantum mechanics to this more sophisticated theory.PhDPhilosophyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111422/1/csebens_1.pd

Upgrading ekphrasis: representations of digital space and virtual worlds in contemporary literature

This thesis addresses the concept of ekphrasis from a new perspective: in the context of digital graphics. The focus of this thesis lies in textual representations of computer-generated immersive and interactive graphical environments, or ‘virtual worlds’. This thesis puts forward an ekphrasis that is spurred by an emotional experience of a visual artwork that has a significant spatial aspect. It is suggested that the viewer/user of such an artwork does not simply gaze from outside, but is incorporated into the digital artwork as an active participant through the immersive and interactive elements. Such a multisensory experience of an artwork has several effects on the dynamic between the viewer/user and the artwork, and, subsequently, also on the process of transmitting that experience to the readers via textual ekphrasis. In its discussion, this thesis focuses on three key texts: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984), Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash (1992) and Charles Stross’s Halting State (2008). Finally, this thesis puts forward a proposal for the operation of 'virtual' ekphrasis through five interrelated principles: metaphor, separation, interface, participation and sharing