NEW IN BLOGS
What Will Quantum Computers Be Good For? — panel...
By ZEEYA MERALI
Over the past couple of months there’s been renewed interest, and quite some intrigue, surrounding quantum computing. As you'll know from the special edition of the podcast with quantum physicist and FQXi blogger Ian Durham we posted in October,...
Intelligence in the Physical World Grantees
By DAVID SLOAN
Fetzer Franklin Fund has partnered with FQXi to stimulate research on the role of intelligence in the physical world. Research will be funded across a host of institutions around the globe, spanning the fields of physics, chemistry, biology,...
FQXi'ers Debate the Deep Questions of Free Will
By GEORGE MUSSER
VIEQUES, PUERTO RICO—Some years ago, while visiting South Africa, I was astounded by the number of languages my friends spoke. It’s not just they knew Xhosa, Zulu, SeSotho, English, and Afrikaans, but that they moved freely among languages to...
NEW PODCAST EPISODES
Quantum Supremacy Milestone? Rumours abound that Google's quantum processor Sycamore has performed a task that would flummox the best classical computer — a first in quantum computing. Physicist Ian Durham assesses the claims, gives us a quantum computing primer, and discusses concerns about the term 'quantum supremacy'.
Quantum Mind Reading. Could we create a quantum experiment to predict what a person will do, without having to simulate their consciousness? Physicist Adam Brown argues a classic quantum "bomb tester" proposed in the 1990s could be modified to do just that.
Downward Causation. Cosmologist George Ellis investigates agency and argues that causation is a two-way process between the mind and lower level biological and physical functions. From the 6th FQXi meeting in Tuscany, in July.
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Ultimate Reality
Alternative Models of Reality
By ZEEYA MERALI
If you have an unconventional, alternative model of reality, then this is the place to discuss it. (This is for contributors who have preliminary ideas and would like feedback, but do not have an academic paper or arXiv preprint and have not given a...
High Energy Physics
Ed Witten on the Nature of Reality
By ZEEYA MERALI
Natalie Wolchover has a fascinating interview with string theorist Ed Witten, in Quanta on dualities and what is real and fundamental. Thank you to Steve Agnew for suggesting that this would be a could discussion topic.
Technology
Are We Merging With Our Technology?
By WILLIAM OREM
Put this one in the Strange New World file: is it possible to use junk DNA as a repository for secret messages? The idea cropped up in science fiction some time ago, but as of now, it's also reality.
Japanese researchers at Keio University,...