Emergence from Quantum Information

The early version of this Edward Witten interview by Natalie Wolchover – since corrected – was criticised for suggesting his M-Theory was the only current model (with any worthwhile credibility) attempting to unify quantum and gravity fields. His idea of (M-em)branes combining multiple string theories in multiple dimensions beyond 3 is now 22 years old. What … Continue reading “Emergence from Quantum Information”

Teleology Without a God

Discounting the intellectual snobbery that this is about Dan Brown, as indeed the reviewer himself suggests, it is worth a read. The headline is: “Dan Brown’s New Novel Pushes Atheism and Endorses Intelligent Design … Wait …What?“ I’ve not digested the whole yet (and there are secondary references to follow-up) but my own position is … Continue reading “Teleology Without a God”

The Tensions Between Science and Psychology – recent bookmarks

A collection of interesting links I’ve had bookmarked for a while: Yaïr Pinto in Aeon: When you split the brain, do you split the person? The Divided Brain is an important topic to understand better, too easily dismissed amid misunderstood myths. Ben Medlock in Aeon: The body is the missing link for truly intelligent machines. … Continue reading “The Tensions Between Science and Psychology – recent bookmarks”

Why Fluid Dynamics is not boring?

A bookmarking post only. Interesting to me as an one-time fluid-dynamicist, and I’ve mentioned the parallels before between Navier-Stokes et al in Fluid Dynamics and more fundamental physics. Especially point-based (Boscovich), quantum-loop-based (Rovelli) and integrated-information (IIT). Just capturing the link here. “fluid dynamics, is surprisingly pivotal to understanding some of the most elementary constituents and … Continue reading “Why Fluid Dynamics is not boring?”

Hidden Concepts – Edge 2017 – Let’s play Connections instead of Bulldog

There was a time when I followed John Brockman’s Edge regularly, it was a great way to pick up relationships between living thinkers you already knew and admired and others you didn’t, from across unlimited intellectual fields. The great thing about the annual Edge Question is that apart from the open question, there is no … Continue reading “Hidden Concepts – Edge 2017 – Let’s play Connections instead of Bulldog”

A New Species of Mind-Matter Explanation

I am at last reading and considering this TLS piece in which Tim Crane presents the Papineau / Dennett exchanges on Dennett’s “From Bacteria to Bach and Back”.  I’ve had it bookmarked for over a week and so far made only passing references. Tim Crane’s a professional, I’m an amateur, when it comes to the … Continue reading “A New Species of Mind-Matter Explanation”

The Connectivist

I’ve been interacting with Jaap van Till for the last year or two, mainly on Twitter. His blog is The Connectivist. He recently made a reference to, and separately blogged about, Ann-Marie Slaughter’s “The Chess Board and the Web“ in a comment to me. And my response was to liken the sound of her “Chessboard” … Continue reading “The Connectivist”

Quantum Weirdness Ain’t So Weird

Had this Aeon piece by Philip Ball on my desktop for a day or two, and had it brought to my attention today by Robin. Firstly I’m already a believer that the wave-particle duality and collapse of the wave function driven by the observer are fudges, as is the idea that many superpositioned states represent … Continue reading “Quantum Weirdness Ain’t So Weird”