If you are aware of an interesting new academic paper (that has been published in a peer-reviewed journal or has appeared on the arXiv), a conference talk (at an official professional scientific meeting), an external blog post (by a professional scientist) or a news item (in the mainstream news media), which you think might make an interesting topic for an FQXi blog post, then please contact us at forums@fqxi.org with a link to the original source and a sentence about why you think that the work is worthy of discussion. Please note that we receive many such suggestions and while we endeavour to respond to them, we may not be able to reply to all suggestions.
Please also note that we do not accept unsolicited posts and we cannot review, or open new threads for, unsolicited articles or papers. Requests to review or post such materials will not be answered. If you have your own novel physics theory or model, which you would like to post for further discussion among then FQXi community, then please add them directly to the "Alternative Models of Reality" thread, or to the "Alternative Models of Cosmology" thread. Thank you.
Please also note that we do not accept unsolicited posts and we cannot review, or open new threads for, unsolicited articles or papers. Requests to review or post such materials will not be answered. If you have your own novel physics theory or model, which you would like to post for further discussion among then FQXi community, then please add them directly to the "Alternative Models of Reality" thread, or to the "Alternative Models of Cosmology" thread. Thank you.
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RECENT POSTS IN THIS TOPIC
Lee Bloomquist: on 2/8/18 at 5:34am UTC, wrote Edward Witten, in an interview with WIRED ___...
John Cox: on 12/21/17 at 22:07pm UTC, wrote Kinda difficult to comment on fundamental physics when the Recent Posts...
Anonymous: on 12/21/17 at 15:36pm UTC, wrote Dear John R Cox Please make a better effort to stay on topic. We are...
John Cox: on 12/20/17 at 16:00pm UTC, wrote Hey! Tony! Take a look at all the bots that keep cropping up on 'Recent...
Joe Fisher: on 12/16/17 at 16:19pm UTC, wrote Dear Anthony Aguirre, The mission of the Foundational Questions Institute...
Anthony Aguirre: on 12/15/17 at 22:13pm UTC, wrote Our mission at FQXi has always been to push boundaries, and to try to focus...
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Nicholas hosein: "Iwrote the above when I had perfect clarity." in Good Vibrations
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Lee Bloomquist: on 2/8/18 at 5:34am UTC, wrote Edward Witten, in an interview with WIRED ___...
John Cox: on 12/21/17 at 22:07pm UTC, wrote Kinda difficult to comment on fundamental physics when the Recent Posts...
Anonymous: on 12/21/17 at 15:36pm UTC, wrote Dear John R Cox Please make a better effort to stay on topic. We are...
John Cox: on 12/20/17 at 16:00pm UTC, wrote Hey! Tony! Take a look at all the bots that keep cropping up on 'Recent...
Joe Fisher: on 12/16/17 at 16:19pm UTC, wrote Dear Anthony Aguirre, The mission of the Foundational Questions Institute...
Anthony Aguirre: on 12/15/17 at 22:13pm UTC, wrote Our mission at FQXi has always been to push boundaries, and to try to focus...
RECENT FORUM POSTS
Jim Snowdon: "It`s the cognitive grasp of the Earth`s rotational motion! Our conscious..." in The Nature of Time
Jim Snowdon: "Steve, The science is simple. Embrace the non-existence of..." in The Nature of Time
Steve Dufourny: "Hi, Esa, Nasa, WB, UN ,All governments, the royal famillies, the..." in Global Collaboration
Nicholas hosein: "Iwrote the above when I had perfect clarity." in Good Vibrations
Steve Dufourny: "Dr Chiang, I am understanding. These quars , antiquarks, gluons personally..." in Anatomy of spacetime and...
Kwan Chiang: "Hi Steve, I didn’t get involve with quarks and gluons too much, because..." in Anatomy of spacetime and...
Nicholas hosein: "This bears some resemblance to my statement from 2014 on these forums,..." in Reconstructing Physics
Nicholas hosein: "Everything is observer dependent?" in Good Vibrations
RECENT ARTICLES
click titles to read articles
Good Vibrations
Microbead 'motor' exploits natural fluctuations for power.
Reconstructing Physics
New photon experiment gives new meta-framework, 'constructor theory,' a boost.
The Quantum Engineer: Q&A with Alexia Auffèves
Experiments seek to use quantum observations as fuel to power mini motors.
The Quantum Clock-Maker Investigating COVID-19, Causality, and the Trouble with AI
Sally Shrapnel, a quantum physicist and medical practitioner, on her experiments into cause-and-effect that could help us understand time’s arrow—and build better healthcare algorithms.
Connect the Quantum Dots for a New Kind of Fuel
'Artificial atoms' allow physicists to manipulate individual electrons—and could help to reduce energy wastage in electronic devices.
FQXi BLOGS
January 23, 2022
Our mission at FQXi has always been to push boundaries, and to try to focus attention and effort of the scientific community on (what we consider to be) super-interesting areas of research that for one reason or another have gone less explored than they deserve. A new program, a joint venture with the Fetzer Franklin Fund, is no exception. Following on the heels of The Physics of the Observer, our latest program looks at the intersections between physics, information theory, biology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and other fields to address the question: How does Agency arise in the physical world?
How is it that some physical systems “choose” one future or the other based on internal goals or desires? As explored in our previous essay contest, Wandering Toward a Goal, explanation in terms of goals directly contradicts the standard fundamental physics description of the world as the evolution of initial data by equations of motion. But it is very clearly much more effective and efficient for some systems, especially those that are alive. How does this type of explanation co-exist with the evolving "state explanation”?
The Physics of Information program and the Physics of the Observer program brought out some hidden aspects and layers to our description of the world: that in some systems information is a key causal agent, rather than mass, force, and so on. And even in the most fundamental physics, the observer – an agent that can interact with a system and obtain information about it – cannot generally be excised from consideration. If we now ask how systems can learn, think, and act back on the physical world, we come to agency. What role do information, intelligence, emergence, inference, statistical mechanics, and hierarchy play? The new program will dive in.
After announcing the Agency in the Physical World program and launching our co-themed essay contest What Is Fundamental?, it is now time to announce our Large Grant RFP.
Our Large Grant round will award about $1.2M to researchers in academic and other nonprofit institutions for projects up to two years, starting August 2018. The mechanics of the grant application process follow FQXi’s standard routine. We invite all interested parties to submit a brief initial application via our website (now open). Initial applications are due February 1, 2018.
A team of reviewers will select finalists from this initial pool. Those selected will be invited to prepare a full-length proposal, to be submitted in early June. We will announce awards based on these full proposals in early August.
You can read the full details on the RFP site or download the RFP pdf announcement.
How is it that some physical systems “choose” one future or the other based on internal goals or desires? As explored in our previous essay contest, Wandering Toward a Goal, explanation in terms of goals directly contradicts the standard fundamental physics description of the world as the evolution of initial data by equations of motion. But it is very clearly much more effective and efficient for some systems, especially those that are alive. How does this type of explanation co-exist with the evolving "state explanation”?
The Physics of Information program and the Physics of the Observer program brought out some hidden aspects and layers to our description of the world: that in some systems information is a key causal agent, rather than mass, force, and so on. And even in the most fundamental physics, the observer – an agent that can interact with a system and obtain information about it – cannot generally be excised from consideration. If we now ask how systems can learn, think, and act back on the physical world, we come to agency. What role do information, intelligence, emergence, inference, statistical mechanics, and hierarchy play? The new program will dive in.
After announcing the Agency in the Physical World program and launching our co-themed essay contest What Is Fundamental?, it is now time to announce our Large Grant RFP.
Our Large Grant round will award about $1.2M to researchers in academic and other nonprofit institutions for projects up to two years, starting August 2018. The mechanics of the grant application process follow FQXi’s standard routine. We invite all interested parties to submit a brief initial application via our website (now open). Initial applications are due February 1, 2018.
A team of reviewers will select finalists from this initial pool. Those selected will be invited to prepare a full-length proposal, to be submitted in early June. We will announce awards based on these full proposals in early August.
You can read the full details on the RFP site or download the RFP pdf announcement.
Dear Anthony Aguirre,
The mission of the Foundational Questions Institute is supposedly: “To catalyze, support, and disseminate research on questions at the foundations of physics and cosmology, particularly new frontiers and innovative ideas integral to a deep understanding of reality but unlikely to be supported by conventional funding sources.”
My ORCID ID 0000-0003-3988-8687. Unaffiliated. My research has determined the following: The real earth had a real visible surface for over a million years before any English language fluent person ever appeared on that real surface. It logically follows that Natural reality has nothing whatsoever to do with : “standard fundamental physics description of the world…”
The real visible Universe consists of only one single unified visible infinite surface occurring eternally in one single infinite dimension that am eternally illuminated by finite non-surface light.
My essay REALITY AM NOT ROCKET SCIENCE was submitted to FQXi.org on November 10th, 2017. I offered proof in the essay that my research am valid. Why have no essays for the ‘What is Fundamental?’ been published on line?
Joe Fisher, ORCID ID 0000-0003-3988-8687. Unaffiliated
report post as inappropriate
The mission of the Foundational Questions Institute is supposedly: “To catalyze, support, and disseminate research on questions at the foundations of physics and cosmology, particularly new frontiers and innovative ideas integral to a deep understanding of reality but unlikely to be supported by conventional funding sources.”
My ORCID ID 0000-0003-3988-8687. Unaffiliated. My research has determined the following: The real earth had a real visible surface for over a million years before any English language fluent person ever appeared on that real surface. It logically follows that Natural reality has nothing whatsoever to do with : “standard fundamental physics description of the world…”
The real visible Universe consists of only one single unified visible infinite surface occurring eternally in one single infinite dimension that am eternally illuminated by finite non-surface light.
My essay REALITY AM NOT ROCKET SCIENCE was submitted to FQXi.org on November 10th, 2017. I offered proof in the essay that my research am valid. Why have no essays for the ‘What is Fundamental?’ been published on line?
Joe Fisher, ORCID ID 0000-0003-3988-8687. Unaffiliated
Hey! Tony!
Take a look at all the bots that keep cropping up on 'Recent Forum Posts' and go back a few months and look at the pattern. Then Go To Redken and Pureology (at) Sheffield, U.K. and put a damned block on that cyber threat. I can and will call the RCMP down on Perimeter and pull in the U.S. IRS if you career climbers at FQXi don't start doing what you are being paid for. You are hosting a bunch of cranks. jrc
report post as inappropriate
Take a look at all the bots that keep cropping up on 'Recent Forum Posts' and go back a few months and look at the pattern. Then Go To Redken and Pureology (at) Sheffield, U.K. and put a damned block on that cyber threat. I can and will call the RCMP down on Perimeter and pull in the U.S. IRS if you career climbers at FQXi don't start doing what you are being paid for. You are hosting a bunch of cranks. jrc
Dear John R Cox
Please make a better effort to stay on topic. We are supposed to be commenting on the fundamentals of physics.
Joe Fisher, Realist
report post as inappropriate
Please make a better effort to stay on topic. We are supposed to be commenting on the fundamentals of physics.
Joe Fisher, Realist
Kinda difficult to comment on fundamental physics when the Recent Posts list is full of robot techtraps. Or do you have to pay your tech guy that fixes your dishwasher to tell you that?
report post as inappropriate
Edward Witten, in an interview with WIRED ___ https://www.wired.com/story/a-physicists-physicist-ponders-t
he-nature-of-reality/ ____ said "It from qubit" in natural language.
But a computer scientist would know that a software engineer versed in "formal specification languages"-- which are abstract programming tools used to specify what the real time programmers in assembly language...
view entire post
he-nature-of-reality/ ____ said "It from qubit" in natural language.
But a computer scientist would know that a software engineer versed in "formal specification languages"-- which are abstract programming tools used to specify what the real time programmers in assembly language...
view entire post
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