622 research outputs found
Photon echo quantum memories in inhomogeneously broadened two level atoms
Here we propose a solid-state quantum memory that does not require spectral
holeburning, instead using strong rephasing pulses like traditional photon echo
techniques. The memory uses external broadening fields to reduce the optical
depth and so switch off the collective atom-light interaction when desired. The
proposed memory should allow operation with reasonable efficiency in a much
broader range of material systems, for instance Er3+ doped crystals which have
a transition at 1.5 um. We present analytic theory supported by numerical
calculations and initial experiments.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
Nudges and other moral technologies in the context of power: Assigning and accepting responsibility
Strawson argues that we should understand moral responsibility in terms of our practices of holding responsible and taking responsibility. The former covers what is commonly referred to as backward-looking responsibility , while the latter covers what is commonly referred to as forward-looking responsibility . We consider new technologies and interventions that facilitate assignment of responsibility. Assigning responsibility is best understood as the second- or third-personal analogue of taking responsibility. It establishes forward-looking responsibility. But unlike taking responsibility, it establishes forward-looking responsibility in someone else. When such assignments are accepted, they function in such a way that those to whom responsibility has been assigned face the same obligations and are susceptible to the same reactive attitudes as someone who takes responsibility. One family of interventions interests us in particular: nudges. We contend that many instances of nudging tacitly assign responsibility to nudgees for actions, values, and relationships that they might not otherwise have taken responsibility for. To the extent that nudgees tacitly accept such assignments, they become responsible for upholding norms that would otherwise have fallen under the purview of other actors. While this may be empowering in some cases, it can also function in such a way that it burdens people with more responsibility that they can (reasonably be expected to) manage
Stoics against stoics in Cudworth's "A Treatise of Freewill"
In his 'A Treatise of Freewill', Ralph Cudworth argues against Stoic determinism by drawing on what he takes to be other concepts found in Stoicism, notably the claim that some things are ‘up to us’ and that these things are the product of our choice. These concepts are central to the late Stoic Epictetus and it appears at first glance as if Cudworth is opposing late Stoic voluntarism against early Stoic determinism. This paper argues that in fact, despite his claim to be drawing on Stoic doctrine, Cudworth uses these terms with a meaning first articulated only later, by the Peripatetic commentator Alexander of Aphrodisias
How Reasoning Aims at Truth
Many hold that theoretical reasoning aims at truth. In this paper, I ask what it is for reasoning to be thus aim-directed. Standard answers to this question explain reasoning’s aim-directedness in terms of intentions, dispositions, or rule-following. I argue that, while these views contain important insights, they are not satisfactory. As an alternative, I introduce and defend a novel account: reasoning aims at truth in virtue of being the exercise of a distinctive kind of cognitive power, one that, unlike ordinary dispositions, is capable of fully explaining its own exercises. I argue that this account is able to avoid the difficulties plaguing standard accounts of the relevant sort of mental teleology
Brokered Graph State Quantum Computing
We describe a procedure for graph state quantum computing that is tailored to
fully exploit the physics of optically active multi-level systems. Leveraging
ideas from the literature on distributed computation together with the recent
work on probabilistic cluster state synthesis, our model assigns to each
physical system two logical qubits: the broker and the client. Groups of
brokers negotiate new graph state fragments via a probabilistic optical
protocol. Completed fragments are mapped from broker to clients via a simple
state transition and measurement. The clients, whose role is to store the
nascent graph state long term, remain entirely insulated from failures during
the brokerage. We describe an implementation in terms of NV-centres in diamond,
where brokers and clients are very naturally embodied as electron and nuclear
spins.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Lewisian quidditism, humility, and diffidence
In ‘Ramseyan Humility’ Lewis presents the Permutation Argument for quidditism. As he presents it the argument is simple enough, but once one digs beneath its surface, and attempts to understand it in strictly Lewisian terms, difficulties arise. The fundamental difficulty is that, as he presents it, the argument only seems to be sound if one rejects views that Lewis explicitly holds. One aim of this paper is to clarify the argument to show that one can make sense of it in strictly Lewisian terms. In so doing I clarify Lewis’s view, clearly lay out the commitments that Lewis has, and define quidditism in strictly Lewisian terms. However, I also have a secondary aim. Lewis accepts that quidditism entails a form of scepticism, that he calls ‘Humility’. However, by an extension of the permutation argument I show that quidditism entails a form of scepticism, that I call ‘Diffidence’, that is far more wide-reaching than Humility
Diamond nano-pillar arrays for quantum microscopy of neuronal signals
Modern neuroscience is currently limited in its capacity to perform long
term, wide-field measurements of neuron electromagnetics with nanoscale
resolution. Quantum microscopy using the nitrogen vacancy centre (NV) can
provide a potential solution to this problem with electric and magnetic field
sensing at nano-scale resolution and good biocompatibility. However, the
performance of existing NV sensing technology does not allow for studies of
small mammalian neurons yet. In this paper, we propose a solution to this
problem by engineering NV quantum sensors in diamond nanopillar arrays. The
pillars improve light collection efficiency by guiding excitation/emission
light, which improves sensitivity. More importantly, they also improve the size
of the signal at the NV by removing screening charges as well as coordinating
the neuron growth to the tips of the pillars where the NV is located. Here, we
provide a growth study to demonstrate coordinated neuron growth as well as the
first simulation of nano-scopic neuron electric and magnetic fields to assess
the enhancement provided by the nanopillar geometry.Comment: 18 pages including supplementary and references, 12 figure
Problems of Kantian Nonconceptualism and the Transcendental Deduction
In this paper, I discuss the debate on Kant and nonconceptual content. Inspired by Kant’s account of the intimate relation between intuition and concepts, McDowell (1996) has forcefully argued that the relation between sensible content and concepts is such that sensible content does not severally contribute to cognition but always only in conjunction with concepts. This view is known as conceptualism. Recently, Kantians Robert Hanna and Lucy Allais, among others, have brought against this view the charge that it neglects the possibility of the existence of essentially nonconceptual content that is not conceptualised or subject to conceptualisation. Their critique of McDowell amounts to nonconceptualism. However, both views, conceptualist and nonconceptualist, share the assumption that intuition is synthesised content in Kant’s sense. My interest is not in the validity of the philosophical positions of conceptualism or nonconceptualism per se. I am particularly interested in the extent to which the views that McDowell and Hanna and Allais respectively advance are true to Kant, or can validly be seen as Kantian positions. I argue that although McDowell is right that intuition is only epistemically relevant in conjunction with concepts, Hanna and Allais are right with regard to the existence of essentially nonconceptual content (intuitions) independently of the functions of the understanding, but that they are wrong with regard to non-conceptualised intuition being synthesised content in Kant’s sense.
Kantian conceptualists (Bowman 2011; Griffith 2012; Gomes 2014) have responded to the recent nonconceptualist offensive, with reference to A89ff./B122ff. (§13)—which, confusingly, the nonconceptualists also cite as evidence for their contrary reading—by arguing that the nonconceptualist view conflicts with the central goal of the Transcendental Deduction, namely, to argue that all intuitions are subject to the categories. I contend that the conceptualist reading of A89ff./B122ff. is unfounded, but also that the nonconceptualists are wrong to believe that intuitions as such refer strictly to objects independently of the functions of the understanding, and that they are mistaken about the relation between figurative synthesis and intellectual synthesis. I argue that Kant is a conceptualist, albeit not in the sense that standard conceptualists assume. Perceptual knowledge is always judgemental, though without this resulting in the standard conceptualist claim that, necessarily, all intuitions or all perceptions per se stand under the categories (strong conceptualism). I endorse the nonconceptualist view that, for Kant, perception per se, i.e. any mere or ‘blind’ intuition of objects (i.e. objects as indeterminate appearances) short of perceptual knowledge, does not necessarily stand under the categories. Perception is not yet perceptual knowledge. In this context, I point out the common failure in the literature on the Transcendental Deduction, both of the conceptualist and nonconceptualist stripe, to take account of the modal nature of Kant’s argument for the relation between intuition and concept insofar as cognition should arise from it
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