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Anonymous: "Anonymous, excellent. Gravitational contraction (to the center of the body)..." in Philosophy vs. Physics
Anonymous: "Jelle, gravity at the middle body projects space to the middle distance and..." in Philosophy vs. Physics
Anonymous: "How do thought and mathematical description fundamentally relate to..." in Essay Contest 2010: What...
Anonymous: "This next contest should advance physics fundamentally, including how..." in Essay Contest 2010: What...
T H Ray: "I think a less technical way to speak of the difference between quantum and..." in GRW vs Free Will
Steve Dufourny: "Hi dear Don, Interesting for the link between numbers and mass.....it's..." in GRW vs Free Will
RECENT ARTICLES
click titles to read articles
Readers' Choice: The Holographic Universe
Take one universe. Turn it into a hologram. Find its quantum wavefunction. Understand the birth of our cosmos.
The Quantum PlayStation
How the PS3 is helping physicists develop a theory of quantum gravity.
The Destiny of the Universe
A radical reformulation of quantum mechanics suggests that the universe has a set destiny and its pre-existing fate reaches back in time to influence the past. It could explain the origin of life, dark energy and solve other cosmic conundrums.
Time and the Multiverse
Could multiple universes explain our arrow of time? Does time run backwards in other universes?
The Black Hole Universe
Is our universe housed in a black hole? Or did it exist before the Big Bang? If so, we could solve the mystery of dark energy—surprisingly, it could all be down to the humble neutrino.
FQXi BLOGS
September 2, 2010
It's been a while since my last post and the number one rule of blogging is never to apologise for your absence. On the other hand, since fqxi is all about breaking the rules I'll say that I'm sorry, but I have the excuse that there were good quantum foundational reasons for my absence.
Firstly, there is a month long series of workshops in Waterloo going on at the moment under the banner Taming The Quantum World. Last week we had a very interesting one organized by Paul Busch and Lucien Hardy entitled Operational Quantum Physics and the Quantum-Classical Contrast. You can find recordings of the talks here. Last time I checked the audio wasn't working, but hopefully that will be fixed soon.
What I liked most about this workshop was that it somehow managed to avoid the usual arguments about interpretations, i.e. which one is correct, that are often found at such meetings. Instead, it focussed on three main areas, all of which are becoming increasingly interesting to me:
- How to properly account for the emergence of apparent classicality from quantum theory.
- The relationship between quantum mechanics and causality.
- The relationship between quantum theory and information processing.
I highly recommend looking at some of the talks if you are interested in any of these areas.
The second major distraction was that a couple of weeks ago Lucien Hardy asked me to help with the assesment of the applications that we received for the Quantum Foundations Summer School to be held here this August. I am not sure I would have agreed if I had realized that there were over 350 applications to sort through! Many of them came from students in high energy and condensed matter physics, and not just from closely allied fields that traditionally worry about foundational issues, e.g. quantum cosmology. OK, so we did a good advertising campaign, but nevertheless this seems to be another piece of evidence that foundational research is gradually gaining credibility in the mainstream. I'd like to know if other people have the same impression, or if it's simply because I'm looking from the vantage point of an institute that cares deeply about foundational questions.
this post has been edited by the author since its original submission
post approved
Firstly, there is a month long series of workshops in Waterloo going on at the moment under the banner Taming The Quantum World. Last week we had a very interesting one organized by Paul Busch and Lucien Hardy entitled Operational Quantum Physics and the Quantum-Classical Contrast. You can find recordings of the talks here. Last time I checked the audio wasn't working, but hopefully that will be fixed soon.
What I liked most about this workshop was that it somehow managed to avoid the usual arguments about interpretations, i.e. which one is correct, that are often found at such meetings. Instead, it focussed on three main areas, all of which are becoming increasingly interesting to me:
- How to properly account for the emergence of apparent classicality from quantum theory.
- The relationship between quantum mechanics and causality.
- The relationship between quantum theory and information processing.
I highly recommend looking at some of the talks if you are interested in any of these areas.
The second major distraction was that a couple of weeks ago Lucien Hardy asked me to help with the assesment of the applications that we received for the Quantum Foundations Summer School to be held here this August. I am not sure I would have agreed if I had realized that there were over 350 applications to sort through! Many of them came from students in high energy and condensed matter physics, and not just from closely allied fields that traditionally worry about foundational issues, e.g. quantum cosmology. OK, so we did a good advertising campaign, but nevertheless this seems to be another piece of evidence that foundational research is gradually gaining credibility in the mainstream. I'd like to know if other people have the same impression, or if it's simply because I'm looking from the vantage point of an institute that cares deeply about foundational questions.
this post has been edited by the author since its original submission
post approved
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