How Stands Collapse II

I review ten problems associated with the dynamical wave function collapse program, which were described in the first of these two papers. Five of these, the \textit{interaction, preferred basis, trigger, symmetry} and \textit{superluminal} problems, were discussed as resolved there. In this volume in honor of Abner Shimony, I discuss the five remaining problems, \textit{tails, conservation law, experimental, relativity, legitimization}. Particular emphasis is given to the tails problem, first raised by Abner. The discussion of legitimization contains a new argument, that the energy density of the fluctuating field which causes collapse should exert a gravitational force. This force can be repulsive, since this energy density can be negative. Speculative illustrations of cosmological implications are offered.Comment: 37 page

COP21 climate negotiators' responses to climate model forecasts

Policymakers involved in climate change negotiations are key users of climate science. It is therefore vital to understand how to communicate scientific information most effectively to this group. We tested how a unique sample of policymakers and negotiators at the Paris COP21 conference update their beliefs on year 2100 global mean temperature increases in response to a statistical summary of climate models' forecasts. We randomized the way information was provided across participants using three different formats similar to those used in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports. In spite of having received all available relevant scientific information, policymakers adopted such information very conservatively, assigning it less weight than their own prior beliefs. However, providing individual model estimates in addition to the statistical range was more effective in mitigating such inertia. The experiment was repeated with a population of European MBA students who, despite starting from similar priors, reported conditional probabilities closer to the provided models' forecasts than policymakers. There was also no effect of presentation format in the MBA sample. These results highlight the importance of testing visualization tools directly on the population of interest